


Monster Hunter International: The Pack

by Arlux1313



Series: Syracuse team [2]
Category: Monster Hunter International Series - Larry Correia
Genre: F/M, Gen, Gun Violence, Gunplay, Implied Sexual Content, Martial Arts, Mild Sexual Content, Mixed Martial Arts, Multi, Pro Wrestling references, References to Supernatural (TV), Supernatural Elements, Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-05-13 01:32:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 59,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5689441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arlux1313/pseuds/Arlux1313
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Several years after Monster Hunter International: Encounters, and the outbreak in New York City. James 'Jimmi Hendrix' Woods had a seemingly bad outlook on life, until he got away from his mother and was attacked by a werewolf. Now the newest recruit for the famous Monster Hunter International, alongside his closest friend Matt Reese. But the two stirred up the hornets nest by killing four members of the worlds largest werewolf pack. Will they take the pack down, or end up running with the wolves, by the end of it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

You know, sometimes life can be really difficult. Take mine for instance. Before I did what do now, I thought my life was pure hell. I lived in what I had to say was the worst part of New York state. Fulton was absolute garbage. The lowest of the low, people who only rely on food stamps and absolutely refuse to work. You know? Racist hicks who drink Pabst Blue Ribbon like water. I lived with my mom, which wasn’t really a bad thing. Mom isn’t really a bad person, it’s just really difficult for her to find work where we lived. Plus I had a sneaking suspicion that for the longest time she was really sick. Odd thing was, she never missed a car payment, or a bill payment. My dad who is a gunnery sargent in the United States Marine Corps had divorced her years ago. My step-mom Marlyn kicked ass, and I desperately wanted to go and live with the two of them. Currently they lived on the Marine base in Fort Bragg with my two half-siblings Jillian and Anthony. Unfortunately, my mom had gotten custody by some condition in the divorce hearings. Like I said before, it wasn’t a bad thing really, I just wanted to go and live with my dad more than I wanted to live with my mom. I mean yeah, I got to see dad from time to time, but the last time I really saw them was when I was 15. That was at my Grandpa Wood’s funeral.

Then my life took a good turn. I was out of high school, I got accepted into Syracuse University thanks to my dad pulling the strings. Still there was something that really pissed me off that happened before I left. My dad told me that my grandpa had left me something in his will. His 1968 model Mustang, and his house in Manhattan. I was kinda mad that mom had never told me about what Grandpa Woods had left me in his will. Okay yeah let’s be honest, there was a pretty bad argument between me and mom. She said that we couldn’t afford to live in Manhattan, and the taxes we would have to claim the house and car would have set us in the hole real deep -I know, phrasing.- By then I was staying in a small apartment close to campus, splitting the rent with my friend Matt Reese. For some odd reason, when I went to claim what Grandpa Woods had left me in his will, there weren’t any tax implications. I didn’t have to pay one cent for that car.

There’s a small little shooting range just outside Baldwinsville New York. Matt is a huge gun nut just like his father, and had gotten me hooked as well. It was the spring semester of our junior year at SU, but it was still cold out, so I was wrapped up in a black UNSC hoodie. Don’t judge me, I love the Halo franchise. I killed the engine of the Mustang that my grandpa left me in his will, and shuddered when the cold air hit me. I think I liked the warm temperature of my car than the cold weather outside. Matt’s late model Ford Crown Victoria was right behind me.

“Whoo! Damn it’s cold!” Matt exclaimed before he popped open his trunk, and I did the same. 

My trunk had an assortment of things. My backpack, that had my laptop, and a few course books. Classes had just ended for the day. When Matt and I didn’t have work after class, we’d always stop by this little range. Kind of a daily ritual so to speak. There was a duffel bag with clothes that needed washing, and another filled with ammo, that had a small little padlock around both zippers. Underneath that were my gun cases. I had a pair of lever action 1887 shotguns in one case, I had a love of Old Western movies, and an 1887 shotgun was the closest I was gonna get to an Winchester repeater rifle with the budget I had. I also had a single-shot variant of an AR-15. I say single-shot, being that it was illegal to own an automatic weapon in New York State. But probably the most expensive weapons I had were my pistols. I had a Glock-19 9mm, and a Browning, also another 9mm. I had another pair of pistols as well. A pair of of Colt Peacemakers that my grandpa had left me in his will along with the Mustang, and his house in Manhattan. I still had no idea what I was going to do with that house. There was no way I could afford to live in it. Hell I could barely afford my last handgun.

“You good Jimmi?” Matt asked taking his gun cases out of the trunk of his Crown Victoria.

I rolled my eyes. Matt had continuously called me Jimmi Hendrix since our Freshman year in high school. I wear a Jimmy Hendrix shirt one day, and it sticks for six goddamn years. It stuck, and it sucked for the first couple of weeks but I eventually got used to it. “Yeah Hayden. I’m good.”

“Oh you son of a bitch.” Matt said laughing. My friend had a striking resemblance to Hayden Christiansen. The guy who played Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequal trilogy. “Come on, enough standing around here freezing our nuts off. Let’s go shoot some guns.”

CRACK! My AR-15 hit its target what seemed to be millimeters from the bulls-eye. I exhaled once again, at the same time squeezing the trigger. My rifle expended its final round with another loud CRACK! 

“Damn I wish I could shoot something automatic.” Matt said, as he unloaded a shortened FAL into a target of his own. 

“As long as that gun law exists, civilians like you and I won’t ever get our hands on automatics. At least not legally.” I said, as I unloaded my rifle, flicked its safety back on, and switched to my Glock-19. I squeezed off the fifteen rounds that I had loaded into the pistol’s magazine.

“Yeah. That’s the sucky part. Oh hey check this out, I bought it from Intimidator’s, and the paperwork just came back on it.” Matt pulled out a H&K Tac 45 tactical variant. Ten round magazine, elevated sights, desert camo finish, and a threaded barrel for a mounted suppressor. 

“You lucky bastard. How the hell did you afford that?” I asked, as we worked in the same place. We worked part time at Dinosaur Barbeque downtown to help pay rent, pay off student loans, oh and the most important thing which was purchasing guns. “Plus why did you buy it? I thought you didn’t like H and K weapons.”

“I had to save up for a few months.” Matt replied. “Trust me it was a bitch and a half, but the wait for the paperwork to come back sucked worse than saving up for it. But it’s my dad that doesn’t like H and K. He calls ‘em ‘over-hyped and over priced German garbage’. But me, I think they’re reliable. They’re well made, and they rarely ever break.”

“That’s German engineering for you.” I said, as I reloaded one of the two 15 round mags I had for my Glock. Oh sure, it wasn’t legal to keep a full 15 rounds in a sidearm magazine -the limit for a civilian is 7- but seriously who is gonna say anything? Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my Glock, but I would have really loved to get my hands on a sidearm that was chambered for .45 ACP. Matt’s dad had a beautiful set of twin 1911’s, that he had let me shoot when he taught me how to fire pistols. I was in love with those sidearms at first shot, and was desperately looking for a .45 of my own, preferably a 1911.

“Hey,” Matt began, as he loaded the 10 round magazine of his new Tac 45. “Why don’t you ever fire your grandpa’s peacemakers?”

“Because.” I explained. “His will stated that for some reason or another, I should only use it in an extreme situation, and that I would know when that was.”

“Oooo cryptic.” Mat said, as he fired his new sidearm.

It was late in the afternoon, when we decided to call it a day at the range. Our weapons were put on safety, and secured in our cases. We made our way back to our cars, when we heard loud growling from behind us. And that made us pause. The owners of the range never had any dogs, so what was growling? There was nothing there when we turned around, but then I saw Matt shake my shoulder. He pointed to the roof of the range’s main building. Standing there in a low crouch, was a dark brown furred…

“If I’m seeing things correctly, that’s a goddamn werewolf…” Matt said his voice shaking.

“And… I think we’re in its sights.” I very slowly undid the clasps on one of my 1887 cases. The werewolf noticed, and with a long howl, it launched itself at us. My case thudded against the ground, and my shotgun was in my hand. I pulled the trigger, and the werewolf sailed over our heads, with the exception of its left arm. That came off at the shoulder.

“Dude you fuckin’ shot it!” Matt’s tone was a mix of shock, horror, and excited. 

“I don’t think it’s dead. I might have just pissed it off.” I replied with my tone matching Matt’s.

“How the hell do you know that!?”

“You don’t know about supernatural creatures!?” I asked incredulously, as Matt shook his head. “You need silver to kill a werewolf!”

“We don’t have anything silver!” Matt yelled, as the werewolf got back to its feet, growling in a way that meant it was incredibly pissed off. “And I think we’re in trouble!”

The werewolf launched itself at us again, and I pulled back on the lever, and blasted at the one armed werewolf. Buckshot caught it in the abdomen, and it sailed over us again coming to a rolling stop several feet away from us. I tossed my 1887 to Matt.

“Keep an eye on that thing.” I said placing my keys into my trunk, pausing to look at grandpa Wood’s peacemakers. Out of curiosity, I took one out of the holsters, and looked at the chambered rounds. They were a real bright, shiny metal. I took the second one out of its holster, as Matt said something about the werewolf getting back up.

“Whatever you’re doing back there, hurry the hell up!” He pulled the lever on my 1887 down, then back up to chamber the next round. 

I was back at Matt’s side aiming one of the Old Western revolvers at the werewolf that was slowly getting back up, but bleeding everywhere. “I think grandpa had these things loaded with silver bullets. Only one way to find out though.” I pulled the hammer back, and pulled the trigger. The werewolf dropped with a surprised and painful yelp, and this time it didn’t get back up.

“Silver bullets… Dude your grandpa knew what he was doing.” Matt said, as he placed my 1887 back into it’s case, then back into the trunk of my car.

“Matt I don’t think we’re done yet.” I said, as I raised both Peacemakers. I heard more growling coming from behind the main building. I was right saying that we weren’t finished. Four more werewolves jumped onto the roof, growling clearly infuriated that one of their pack had been killed.

“Feeling up to sharing Jimmi?” Matt asked back at my side, and I handed one of the silver-loaded revolvers to him. The wolves launched themselves at us, and the both of us opened up on the werewolves. Two werewolves dropped, but the other two scattered. They began to circle us, and we didn’t fire. We only had two guns with silver bullets, and we didn’t want to waste them. One of the wolves launched itself at us, and we ducked. I got my revolver up just in time to shoot it in the jaw. The silver bullet exited through the top of it’s head, and it dropped to the ground dead. Then there was one wolf left. It was hiding behind Matt’s Crown Victoria, and in a stroke of brilliance, Matt fired twice, catching the wolf in the legs under the bottom of the car. The werewolf collapsed to the ground as the silver bullets tore through its legs.

“Hey, hey. Let’s finish it off with some style.” Mat said as we moved in for the kill. 

“What do you mean?” I asked, taking caution to stay out of reach of the wolf’s claws.

“Ever seen the Boondock Saints?” He asked, and a smile crossed my face. We placed my grandpa’s revolvers against the back of the werelolf’s skull, and recited the MacManus brothers prayer.

_“And shepards we shall be._  
_For thee, my Lord for thee._  
_Power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command._  
_So we shall flow a river forth to thee._  
_And teeming with souls shall it ever be._  
_In Nomine Patris, et Fili, et Spiritus Sancti”_

The two of us pulled the trigger once each, and the fifth werewolf dropped to the ground dead.


	2. Chapter 2

The two of us must have been interrogated by cops for over an hour, until a black SUV pulled up. Two men in cheap off the rack suits, stepped out, flashed their credentials, and the cops backed off. These two guys just screamed Federal Agent. One fed looked like DJ Cotrona, the actor who played the character Flynt from G. I. Joe Retaliation. The other fed was a huge gorilla of a man with a sour expression that said he didn’t want to be here right now.

“Good evening gentlemen.” The DJ Cotrona look alike fed said as a matter of greeting. “You two seemed to have handled yourselves rather well, and I commend you for what you did. However there’s a reason myself and my partner Mr. Franks are here.” The smaller fed gestured to the large sour looking man he called ‘Franks.’

“Gentlemen, Mr. Franks and I are with an agency you’ve never heard of called the MCB. Standing for the Monster Control Bereau. Any time an individual encounters any sort of supernatural creature, we’re dispatched to … Shall we say ‘persuade’ the survivors to stay silent.”

Matt and I shared a look of confusion at what this fed had just said, and it was Matt who asked the question that was on both our minds. “What do you mean Mr…?”

“Locke.” The Cotrona agent said. “James Locke. I am acting director of the MCB, and when I said ‘persuade’ what I am actually attempting to say is that you can never tell another living soul about what had happened here tonight or … And this is the part I really don’t like saying…”

“He means shut up, or we’ll kill you.” Agent Franks said in a deadpan tone, and I felt a chill go down my spine at his words. 

“Exactly what Mr. Franks said.” Locke said sighing heavily. Seemed like he really didn’t like to have to say that, and I really don’t want to know how heavy his heart must have been when he had to give Franks the order to take someone out who talked about their encounter with a supernatural creature.

“However gentlemen, there is some good news. In a few moments, another car will pull into the lot. Someone else who survived a monster attack is going to step out and offer you a job.” Locke said, which made me confused.

“Wait hold on a second. You just said that you’d kill us if we talked about what we just went through.” I said looking from Locke to Franks.

Locke shook his head. “Only if you talked to someone who hadn’t encountered a supernatural creature. You aren’t in violation of the Federal Act that allows us to execute people who speaks of their encounter with a supernatural entity, if you speak about it with someone who has already had an encounter with a supernatural entity of their own.”

“Well then what do these people who are about to offer us a job do then?” Matt asked, and Locke shook his head.

“It’s not my place to say.” He replied, as a black colored Shelby Cobra pulled into the lot next to the feds SUV. “Oh good he’s here. We can go now Franks.”

Franks grumbled as he made his way back to the SUV, as two people got out. A man and a woman. The man was about a head taller than me, he had long black locks, a soft expression, and wore a light grey zip-up hoodie over a faded Mighty Morphin’ Power Ranger shirt. The woman who was with him was beautiful. Her hair was dark brown and tied into a single braid, her eyes were hidden under a pair of silver lensed aviator shades. She had a very smokin’ body, and I really didn’t want to stare at it, because I didn’t want to get smacked across the face.

“These them?” The man asked Agent Locke.

“All yours Alex.” The fed said, and to my surprised he and this Alex guy bumped fists, before Locke got into the SUV and drove off.

“What’s up guys?” This Alex guy asked as he stepped up to us, and I recognised him. He was at my grandpa Woods’ funeral. I bet the woman was too, but she was inspecting the five wolves all laid out. To our surprise, the woman then had a gun in her right hand. A compact H&K USP .45 with a silver slider. She squeezed the trigger five times, moving her arm from left to right as she put a bullet into each of the five werewolves. 

“Don’t mind Clare. She’s only making sure that we don’t get any surprises.” Alex explained. “It’s a pretty standard thing for MHI.” 

“Um what the hell is MHI?” Matt asked eyeing the sidearm in Clare’s hand, as she holstered it in a holster on her belt. 

“MHI.” Clare said as she walked back up to Alex. “Is the freelance company Alex and I work for. It stands for Monster Hunter International. Basically what we are, are bounty hunters of the supernatural.”

“So you guys go all around the world hunting down and killing monsters like werewolves?” I asked Alex, who nodded.

“Yeah James. That’s exactly what we do.” 

That settled it. “You were the guy at my grandpa’s funeral.”

“Yeah that was me. Clare was there too.” Clare waved, wiggling her fingers, and I saw a golden band around her left ring finger. So she was married. Then I saw another golden band on Alex’s left ring finger, meaning that the two had to have been husband and wife. “Your grandpa helped us out during the incident in New York City. Guy fought like hell, fought better than the rest of us, and he wasn’t even a Hunter. I remember he left you a pair of Colt Peacemakers in his will.”

“Those things saved our asses today.” Matt said, gesturing to the set of pistols that were laying holstered on the hood of the mustang my grandpa left me in his will.

“Yeah and about that.” Clare said. “Locke told us that you two dropped all five of these werewolves by yourselves, and didn’t get a single scratch on you. Now that’s impressive for an untrained civilian.”

“Do um … Do most people get their asses handed to them on their first encounter?” I asked shakily. 

“Oh hell yeah.” Alex said. “The first monster I went toe to toe with was a vampire, and that son of a bitch kicked my ass something good. I was holed up for almost two months after that.”

“Well your friend said that you guys were offering us a job. Would we be hunting monsters with you guys?” Matt looked from Clare to Alex as he asked his question.

“Well I said it a second ago. You guys are untrained.” Clare spoke up, “If you guys want to join up, you’d need to go through the training process.”

“And how difficult is your training?” Matt asked.

“It could make Navy Seals cry.” The both of them said in unison. 

“Well do you guys use guns?” I asked, although feeling like it was a stupid question to ask.

“Oh do we use guns.” Alex said with a smile on his lips, growing wider by the second. “We have a wide selection to chose from, but you can bring your own if you want as well.”

“We also have specifics for ammo.” Clare spoke up once again. “Its three-oh-eight and two-two-three for rifles. Forty and forty five for pistols. Then its standard twelve gage for shotguns.”

“Damn!” Matt and I said at the same time.

“Alright so just a few more things to clear up here.” Alex said as he pulled a few things from his back pocket. “First of all, if you’re interested in purchasing anything else, show these cards to Brian at Intimidator Armory. He’ll sell you things that normally would be illegal to sell in New York State. Secondly, these belong to the two of you.”

Alex handed us two business cards, and a white envelope. The two of us looked at one another, as we opened the envelopes. My stomach flipped several times when I saw it was a check made out to me worth two hundred fifty thousand dollars.

“Two and a half thousand!?” The two of us said at the same time in matching tones of incredulity.

“Belle was right.” Clare said smiling. “That doesn’t get old.” 

“So are you guys in or what?” Alex asked, and Matt and I shared another look. 

“We’re in.” I said.

“Definately in.” Matt replied.


	3. Chapter 3

Oh sure we said that we were in, but there were a few things that bothered me. First of all, it was the spring semester. I don’t know about Matt, but I wasn’t going to drop my education mid-semester to try out to become a monster bounty hunter. Don’t get me wrong though, I did say I was in the same as Matt, but I wanted to finish off the semester. Fortunately, when I ended up calling the number on the card that was given to me by Alex and Clare when the two gave us those large checks, the man on the other line who called himself Earl Harbinger, said that there was a newbie course underway, and that there wouldn’t be another one for four months. 

 

One issue down, but something still bothered me. That was the ammo standards for MHI. Now while I fit the bill with the majority of my weapons, that being my AR-15, my 1887’s, and even the Peacemakers that once belonged to my grandpa. I wanted something that could pack more punch than what I currently had. Well I … That is to say we solved that problem a few days after the incident at the Baldwinsville shooting range. The PUFF checks had cleared much to our surprise. In case you’re wondering what PUFF is, Clare said that it stood for the Perifferal Unearthly Forces Fund. It was the system used to pay hunters that Teddy Roosevelt set up in 1902. Now from what was explained, there were specifics on how PUFF bounties worked, and that depended on the monster. That being: species, age, and number of victims claimed (That last one made me shudder).

 

Okay I got a little off topic. Anyways, it was a few days after those two hundred fifty thousand bounties cleared. Now the two of us frequented Intimidator Armory pretty often. Okay that’s a bit of an understatement. Matt and I spent more time there, than we did at work and school. The small bell at the top of the doorway rang as the two of us stepped in, and the man behind the counter waved as we stepped inside.

 

“Hey guys.” The shop owner Brian said as we approached the counter. “Just looking today, or you gonna buy something?”

 

“Oh we’re definately buying today.” I replied.

 

“Well that’s a surprise.” Brian said in a tone of mock surprise. “So what can I get you guys?”

 

“You recognise this?” Matt asked as the two of us held up the business cards. And the smile that crossed his face, was like a small kid on Christmas who got the toy he waited all year for from Santa.

 

“Aw fuck yeah! So what can I get you guys? Take your pick.” Brian said, with that smile never leaving his face. “Hey Jimmi, you want to get your hands on a better shotgun?”

 

“Well I kinda like my eighteen-eighty-sevens.” I began, but Brian waved me off.

 

“Ah those things are pea shooters. You need something with a little more meat on its bones.” He disappeared into the back of the shop for a moment, but came back carrying what seemed to be a shortened rifle, but upon further inspection, I realised that it was a- “Seiga twelve. Shortened body, collapsable stock, custom muzzle break, saw-style pistol grip and trigger job. It comes with your standard ten round mag, or a twenty round drum. You can go either semi, or automatic too.”

 

I lost the ability to speak for a few seconds. I was positively drooling over this Russian shotgun. I wanted it. I absolutely had to have this shotgun. “How much?” I asked in a reverent tone.

 

“It’s priced at eleven eighty-two.” Brian said.

 

“Done.” I said a little too quickly, which caught Brian off guard.

 

“Come again?” He asked.

 

“I’ll take it. You did not show me that masterpiece of a shotgun if you didn’t think I was going to buy it.” I said never taking my eyes off the weapon.

 

“Alright.” Brian said smiling. “Custom Seiga twelve, check. You want anything else?” 

 

“Yeah.” I said slowly as I looked around the shop. Thankfully there was nobody else in the shop, with the exception of the three of us. “I could use a rifle, preferably something that isn’t single-fire… Is… Is that a Galil?”

 

Brian looked over his shoulder to where I was pointing. His wide smile grew wider if that was possible as he took the Israeli-made assault rifle off the shelf. “Nice eye. Well as you said this is a Galil. This one’s made by ACE custom. It’s got a twenty one inch barrel, the same pistol grip and trigger job like the Seiga, it comes with your preferred choice of halo or reflex sighting, and the best part is that it fires in single, burst and full auto.”

 

“I’ll take it.” I said, and Brian set the assault rifle next to the customised shotgun. 

 

“It’s yours. So what else?”

 

I still had the matter of getting my hands on a handgun that used either .40 Smith and Wesson or .45 ACP. “No nineteen-elevens in stock?”

 

“Sorry Jimmi, sold my last one a couple weeks ago.” Brian replied with a shrug. “But if you wanted to place an order on one, I can notify you the next time one comes in.”

 

“Nah. I’ll choose something else. You got Sig’s right?”

 

“Attaboy.” Brian said taking a key off the ring on his belt, and unlocking the case. He set the sidearm next to the shotgun and the rifle. “Okay this one’s nice. It’s a Sig two twenty, just got it in. It’s an S-four series. Extended threaded barrel for a mounted suppressor, elevated night sights, retention lanyard, fifteen round magazine, and you see the rails underneath the barrel?”

 

“It’s for a laser sight.” I said knowingly.

 

“Bingo. That comes with this sidearm. Oh yeah, and just this once because I know what you’re gonna be up against.” Brian pulled another Sig, this one smaller than its big brother, and fired ten rounds instead of the usual fifteen. The price was half off if it was purchased along with its full-sized counterpart.

 

“Hell yeah. I’ll take everything.” I said, feeling weak in the knees. If I didn’t have that PUFF check, there would be no way in hell I would be able to afford these guns. “But can I ask, why the deal with the baby Sig?”

 

“Well In reality, the smaller Sig’s we got aren’t really selling. My buddy Alex said that a couple of guys would be stopping in with those cards, and I kinda want to make space in this case.” Brian explained.

 

“Oh so it’s basically that saying that involves the words ‘gift horse’ and ‘mouth’ right?” I asked.

 

“Pretty much.”

 

Well I wasn’t going to complain. Four new highly kickass guns with some awesome attatchments. It was Christmas for me. 

 

“Matt.” I said nudging my friend who was nose deep in the latest issue of Guns ‘N Ammo. “Eyes up man, it’s your turn.”

 

“Sorry.” He said clearing his throat, and showing me what he was looking at in the gun catalogue. “That EBR was calling to me.”

 

“It’s a gun magazine dude, not Playboy.” Brian said, as he took the magazine out of Matt’s hands. “Oh yeah, I remember this gun. It was in my shop a few years ago.”

 

Matt and I stared at Brian in disbelief. “That beauty was in here?” Matt asked with his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

 

“Past tense guys. I sold it years ago.” Brian said apologetically.

 

“Well what can you do with this?” Matt asked placing the gun case that had his FAL rifle on the display case.

 

“I remember this one.” Brian said smiling, as he ran a hand along the shortened rifles stock. “You could barely afford it. Hell I’m surprised you could even afford that Tac fortyfive that just came back.”

 

“In all honesty, so am I.” Matt replied.

 

“So what do you want for this little devil?” Brian asked.

 

Matt thought for a minute, then spoke up. “Trijicon one-to-four power Accupoint scope, and a suppressor if you have any lying around.”

 

“Done and done.” Brian said, as he headed into the back of the store to retrieve the attatchments Matt had requested for his FAL. While Brian was busy looking for what Matt wanted to put onto his FAL, Matt was scoping out the shotgun rack. He seemed to be torn between a Spas 12 and a Benelli tactical TR. 

 

“Well they’re both good pump guns.” I said staring at the shotguns. “Why not get both? It never hurts to have a backup.”

 

“Nah.” Matt said shaking his head. “I think I’m gonna go with the Benelli.”

 

“Nice choice.” Brian said taking the pump gun off the rack. “Eighteen inch barrel, can hold eight rounds. Seven three inch shells in the magazine, and one in the chamber. You can fire either on semi auto or pump. Barrel’s ported, and the top here is railed to mount optics if you’re into putting a scope on a shottie.”

 

“Who the fuck would put a scope on a shottie?” Matt and I asked in unison.

 

“Guys after my own heart.” Brian said laying the Benelli on the counter. “What else?”

 

“A phased plasma rifle in the forty-watt range?”

 

“Oh yeah right.” Brian scoffed, and the three of us laughed at Matt’s little joke. 

 

“What about that other Tac forty-five?”

 

“Now you’re talking.” Brian said taking the ten round tactical sidearm out of the pistol display case. “So anything else?”

 

“Yeah.” I spoke up. “We’re gonna need ammo.”

 

“I figured.” Brian replied. “Preferences on anything special?”

 

“Quadrangle buckshot?” Matt looked at me like I was insane.

 

An evil smirk crossed Brian’s face. “I can do that.”

 

Well we had our weapons, but there was another issue that was still bothering me, and that was my physical condition. I was by no means a fat slob, but I was five feet ten inches, two hundred ten pounds of out of shape Irish white boy. There was no way in hell that I was going to wherever MHI was in the physical condition I was in. So every day after classes had ended, and I didn’t have to work, I hit the local gym and hit the weights and treadmills until it felt like my limbs were on fire. Sure I ran myself ragged, but I wanted to be prepared for whatever MHI could throw at me. When classes ended in late May, I signed up for advanced martial arts classes, and an MMA course. Jui Jitsu, Panther, Tiger. I was deadly with a katana, and any other weapon that had an edge. At one point, someone from my MMA class asked what I was afraid of due to taking all these martial arts courses. I looked him dead in the eye and told him, I wasn’t scared of a damn thing now.

 

By the end of the four months Matt and I had to wait for the next newbie course, I was a certified badass. The Sensei of the martial arts course I had taken, had given me a katana. Tempered steel, razor edge, perfectly balanced handguard, and the scabbard was highly polished oak wood, with a tiger painted in gold on both sides of the polished wood. He said he was sorry to see me go, and that I was always welcome in his dojo. I learned later that the katana was a go-to weapon for a lot of Hunters, and the blade really got the job done. Now quick note: not all katana’s are the same. It has a lot to do with the skill of the forger, and how many layers were stacked while during the forging of the blade. The more layers folded during the forging, the better the quality of the katana. Sensei had told me that this particular blade was a three-shoul. In that it could slice cleanly through three people in one swing. Matt was positively drooling over my katana. While he didn’t take the martial arts course that got me my new katana, he was right beside me with the MMA course and running himself ragged at the gym. The two of us knew we were as ready as we could be for MHI’s training.

 

It was a two day drive from New York to Alabama. The two of us had to drive careful as well. We didn’t want to end up being pulled over by the cops. You could imagine the awkward conversation of trying to explain to a highway patrolman what an armory of weapons were doing in the trunks of two late model vehicles. It was late in the afternoon when the two of us reached the small town of Cazador … Okay let’s be honest here. It’s an insult to call Cazador a town. This place was basically an old fishing village, that if you can believe this, allowed people to take a tour of the catfish factory. Following the directions that Earl Harbinger had given us, we turned off the main road, and turned onto a road that seemed more like a less traveled hiking path. The deeper we went, the denser the trees got. We were two seconds away from saying screw it, and heading back, when a large razor wire fence came into view. At the top of the fence was a faded green horned smiley face. Must have been their emblem or something. There was also a small guard shack, occupied by a highly attractive blonde with a body that left very little to the imagination. She had on an identical pair of silver aviator sunglasses that reminded me of the pair Clare Morrison had when she and Alex gave us our PUFF bounties. 

 

“Can I help you two?” She asked, turning down a stereo I hadn’t noticed was there before, and my stomach jolted when I noted she was also armed with an ACE made Galil rifle like mine.

 

“Yeah.” I said slowly, not taking my eyes off of this woman’s rifle. “Is um … Is this Monster Hunter International?”

 

The blonde’s face split into a friendly smile. “You two here for the newest newbie course?”

 

“Yeah. We are, but this is Monster Hunter International right?” I asked still looking at her rifle.

 

“You came to the right place, but would you quit staring at my chest? It’s rude to stare.” The attractive woman said, and I smiled for the first time since I started talking to her.

 

“Sorry ma’am, but I wasn’t staring at your chest. I was looking at your rifle. It’s a Galil by ACE custom. I have one just like it in my trunk.” 

 

“Oh you don’t have to call me ‘ma’am’. My name is Holly.” Holly extended her hand. “Holly Newcastle.” 

 

I shook her hand smiling. “James Woods. But to my close friends, it’s Jimmi Hendrix.”

 

Holly Newcastle tilted her head. “Why Jimmi Hendrix?”

 

“It was a stupid high school nickname that stuck.” I explained. “It also doesn’t help that I have on a Jimmi Hendrix shirt, and…” I turned up my radio, and Purple Haze blared out of my speakers, from where it was plugged into the tape jack that was fed into my iPod.

 

Holly laughed. “Oh that’s great! Go on in, and park in front of the main building. You can’t miss it, and welcome to MHI Jimmi.”

 

The main building of MHI was several stories high. It was made of all brick, with slits for windows, that gave off this really big foreboding feeling. I felt a chill go up my spine, as I exited my car, and looked up at the large building. “No way I’m going in there unarmed.” I heard Matt say, and saw him holster one of his Tac-45’s. I followed his example, and holstered my full-sized laser sighted Sig Saur P220 onto my belt.

 

The interior of the building was completely different from what I was expecting to find. What I was prepared for were some seriously armed guards with Ma Duce’s prepared for war. What was there, was a high ceilinged reception area, with a highly polished marble floor, and a large oak wood desk. There was a woman sitting behind it who looked like Betty White. Were we in the right place? Or was Holly Newcaslte messing with us?

 

“Can I help you boys?” The Betty White look alike asked us. We must have looked extremely lost to her.

 

“Uh yes ma’am. We’re here for the um … For the newbie course.” Matt spoke up, clearly shocked at what was waiting for us on the other side of those large doors where had just come through.

 

“I’m no ma’am son.” The woman said. “My name’s Dorcas. And the newbie’s are in the cafeteria behind the doors behind me.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder, and we followed her directions.

 

“Just one more thing boys.” We stopped at the same time, and looked over to Dorcas. “Never got your names.”

 

“Oh I’m Matt Reese, and this is my buddy Jimmi,” I elbowed Matt in the side. “James Woods.”

 

Dorcas seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, before she spoke again. “Ohhh you’re them young boys from New York, that went up against five werewolves. You killed ‘em all without getting a single scratch. Good work boys.” She held her hand out, and we shook it marveling the strength the elder woman had in her hands. But that must have been due to the large Ruger revolver she had in her lap.

 

Before we entered the cafeteria, a large wall of silver plaques caught our attention. Undoubtedly a memorial wall, with a surprising number of dates of death being in 1995. That must have been a serious black year for this company. A few other names had death dates going back several years. Including my grandfather’s to my surprise. Above the wall there was writing in latin.

 

 _“Sic transit gloria mundi.”_ Matt read out. “What the hell does that mean?”

 

“It means; ‘The glory of the world is fleeting’.” I replied, and added in response to Matt’s confused look. “We had to read Tolstoy in Latin last year. That book sucked.”

 

Matt nodded, and we proceeded through the large double doors that led into the incredibly large cafeteria. I let out a low whistle as I saw how many other people were there. There must have been over a hundred of them, all from different ethnic backgrounds. A lot of them were grouped together lost in conversation with one another. I didn’t feel like barging in on anyone’s conversation at an inopportune time, so we sat down next to someone else who was sitting by himself towards the front.

 

“What brings you guys here?” He asked.

 

“We killed five werewolves.” I replied holding out my hand. “James Woods. Although a lot of people call me Jimmi Hendrix.”

 

“Richard Rollins.” Richard replied shaking my hand. “Although a lot of people call me Rocky.”

 

“From Philadelphia right? I mean come on. Rocky, Philly.” I rolled my eyes. Matt could be really stupid sometimes.

 

“Yeah I’m from Philly. That’s how I got the name Rocky. But five werewolves?”

 

“Yeah it was pretty intense.” Matt said launching into the story. “We’re packing up from being out at a shooting range, and we’re almost to our cars when we hear some real loud growling. Now the owners of the range don’t have any dogs that we knew of, so we turn around, and there’s nothing there. No dog, owned or stray. But when we look up, that’s when we see the first werewolf. It launches itself at us, but Jimmi here didn’t run. Next thing I know, Jimmi has a shotgun in his hands which at the time were a pair of real nice eighteen eighty-sevens. He blasts the wolf’s left arm off at the shoulder. It charges again, and catches a hail of buckshot in the gut. Jimmi tosses me his shotgun, and heads to his car. Now his grandpa helped this place out a few years before he passed away. In his will, Jimmi was left three things: his house in Manhattan, a really nice nineteen ninety Mustang, and a pair of Colt Peacemakers. Those revolvers were, lucky for us, loaded with silver bullets, and Jimmi takes out the first wolf. Unfortunately its friends got there not two seconds later and they were more than a little … What’s the term? Oh yeah, pissed off. So Jimmi hands me one of his revolvers not a second before the four other wolves launch at us. We take out two, but the other two start circling us. One of them tries the same tactic of charging at us, but Jimmi ducks and takes me with him. In a stroke of brilliance, he gets his gun up, and pops the son of a bitch through the jaw, and up through its brain. Four down and one to go. Only problem is that the damn thing is right behind my car.”

 

“Let me finish this one Matt.” I said before my friend could continue, and Rockie’s focus switched from Matt to myself. “Anyways, Matt due to genius quick thinking, fires off two rounds underneath his late model Crown Vic. The bullets catch the wolf in the knees and he drops. Then Matt gets the idea to be flashy, and finish off the wolf like the brothers from the Boondock Saints.”

 

“Wait, wait, wait.” Rocky interjected. “The Boondock Saints? You mean the prayer those Irish brothers say before they pop someone in the back of the head execution style?”

 

“That’s exactly what we did.” I replied.

 

“Holy mother of badass.” I knew we had impressed Rocky. 

 

“But what about you Rocky?” Matt asked. “What did you kill to get here?”

 

“Well.” Rocky started. “My story isn’t as kickass as yours, I didn’t go up against five angry werewolves or anything. Nah, I got attacked by a vampire.”

 

“Oooooooooh.” The two of us grimaced.

 

“Yeah. It wasn’t fun. I was walking home from my MMA class, when something tackled me. I got lucky and managed to get out on top, and when I get a good look at the guy, he’s got blood all over his mouth and the front of his shirt. Part that creeped me out the most was when he smiled at me. It was this hungry predatorial ‘Imma fuck you up something nasty’ smile. Even worse than that, was when he gave me that smile, I could see those long fangs.”

 

“What did you do?” Matt asked leaning forward like I was.

 

“Well there was a back and forth scuffle, during which, it was all I could do to keep him away from my neck. Somehow I got my knee up, and caught the bastard in the balls. As he’s trying to recover, I reach into my pocket where I have a pair of brass knuckles. I get the son of a bitch by the throat, and I just start punching away at his head, until there’s nothing left and I’m just sitting there on the sidewalk making jelly.”

 

“Damn. It sounds like that scene from Sin City.” Matt said nodding his approval.

 

Rocky never got the chance to reply, as several people walked onto a stage we hadn’t noticed before at the front of the cafeteria. I recognised Holly Newcastle, although it wasn’t hard to distinguish her from the others. Next to her was a tall black man with his hair styled into dreadlocks. Standing next to that guy, was a bear of a man who could possibly give Agent Franks a run for his money. In the center of the stage was a man with sandy blonde hair with a cigarette in his mouth, and a dark brown leather bomber jacket that had that same horned green smiley face on the left sleeve. To his left, was another attractive woman with long black hair and horn rimmed glasses. -Rocky identified the huge bear of a man, and this woman as Owen and Julie Pitt. The two people who had recruited him.- Next to Julie, was another man who was just as tall as Owen who had wire rimmed glasses, and a red Duck Dynasty style beard. And finally next to him stood another woman. A redhead with bright green eyes that seemed slightly fixated on the man at center stage.

 

All conversation in the cafeteria ceased at once when the sandy blonde man in center stage started speaking. “Alright everyone listen up. My name is Earl Harbinger and I’m the director of operations here at MHI. Now weather it was by me, or another hunter, the reason you’re here is simple. You survived an encounter with a monster. Now I don’t mean you were able to run and get away safely. No, I mean you fought back and killed the son of a bitch, and that’s why you’re here. You didn’t listen to the part of your brain when it said to run, but chose to listen to that other part of your brain that told you to fight.” 

 

There was another murmur of conversation, but that stopped again almost at once when Earl started speaking again. “Now I’m not gonna sugar coat it people. This is a dangerous business. You all saw the plaques outside the cafeteria. Each one of those represents a fallen hunter. Add to the fact that the mortality rate for first year hunters is so low. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised or blame anyone if they walked out of here right now.”

 

Not one person got up and left, and a moment later, Earl started speaking again. “No? Alright good. Listen up, the training here is brutal as all hell. Some of you will fail, a few might be kicked out, but a lot of you will quit. And before anyone says anything, trust me it’ll happen. More of you will quit more than others will wash out or be kicked out. Now some of you might have training in law enforcement, intelligence, or military, but let me tell you this. Everyone here and now gets the same training regardless of who you are, or what experience you have or don’t have. I said it a second ago too, our training is brutal, but if you make it through, you’ll be a real hunter working alongside other more experienced hunters on a team. If nobody wants to leave, training starts bright and early tomorrow.”

 

Bright and early my ass! We were up at three in the goddamn morning! However those four months I spent getting into shape really did pay off, because the cross country runs, and obstacle courses were mind numbingly brutal. The lecture classes were brutal as well, but they were small mercy. Matt and I tested out of a few of them. Most notably weapon usage and safety. We were gun nuts after all. But there were some real nasty parts of that training too. Learning how to steak, decapitate, and gut monsters was one. Oh and the goddamn Gut Crawl. A one hundred yard pipe filled with intestines, and all sorts of nasty shit us recruits had to crawl through. I am so glad Owen Pitt told me not to eat breakfast that morning, because the smell from that alone was enough to make me vomit. I had never wanted to take a shower that bad before in my life.

 

Then finally it was over. Four months to the day Matt, Rocky, and myself started, we were standing in the cafeteria, along with sixty or seventy other people who hadn’t washed out, got kicked out, or quit. All of us were decked out in MHI’s armor which was a combination of Kevlar, Nomex, plastic and ceramic plates. All three of us had opted to have our armor colored in straight black, like almost everyone else. And like it was four months ago, Earl Harbinger stood at the center of the cafeteria’s stage, flanked by his team.

 

“Congratulations. You all made it.” He then began to read off names off a piece of paper, that detailed who was being sent where.

 

“Nice job.” Rocky said. “Glad to see you two made it.”

 

“Yeah I thought I was going to go insane after that second Gut Crawl.” I replied and we all shuddered. None of us wanted to go through that again as long as we lived.

 

We heard Earl call our names out, and our attention went back to the man speaking at center stage. “Martin’s team Syracuse: Reese, Rollins Woods.”

 

“Goin’ home.” Matt said. 

 

“And on the same team too.” I replied, and the three of us shared a knuckle bump reminiscent of the one shared between Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns.


	4. Chapter 4

It was another two day drive to get home, and I gotta say coming home from a long journey is worse than making the initial trip in that you think it takes longer than it really is. But the bottom line is, that when we finally arrived in Syracuse we were starving. I reached for the walky-talky that was resting in one of the two cup holders in the center console, when it cracked to life.

 _“Can we stop off somewhere and get something to eat?”_ Rocky asked over the line. _“I’m starving.”_

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, you feeling up to Applebee’s?” 

There was an Applebee’s located close to where the Syracuse compound was. It was set right in between three buildings. The local high school -I didn’t attend this one, as Fulton was about an hour drive away- A clothing store that looked like it was a few weeks away from going out of business, and a Lowes hardware that was connected to the local Walmart. Okay so it was four buildings, but those last two were connected. It’s interior was a little darker than most other resturaunts, but the interior was warm and inviting. The receptionist asked if it was just the three of us, when someone called out. 

“Those three are with us!”

The receptionist smiled and took the three of us to a small cluster of tables closer to the bar. There was a long padded bench on one side of the tables, and a few chairs on the other side. Fifteen people were sitting at the tables, who all looked at us smiling as the receptionist seated us. 

“You guys look good.” Alex said.

“Those was the most brutal four months of my life.” Matt said as he looked through the menu.

“Eh it’ll get easier from here on out.” Another guy in a backwards Yankee cap said. “I’m Connor, one of the team heavy gunners. Kai,” Connor pointed to a highly attractive Japanese woman, “Is the other.”

At the far end of the bench, another man leaned over. His hair was brown, and combed back, there was a pair of dark shades on top of his head, he had a dark Under Armor shirt covering his torso, and I could see the bottom of what looked like a Celtic Cross tattoo poking out from under his shirt on his left forearm. “I’m Pat Martin. I’m the team leader up here. You already met Alex and Clare,” -the married couple waved- “You know Connor and Kai, now let me get you up to speed on the rest of the team.” 

Isabelle, who was the dark-skinned dreadlocked woman, who had an american flag bandanna tied around her forehead was the team’s medic. The large unhappy man, who greeted us in Russian was one of the team’s marksmen. His was Dimitri. Alex’s two brothers were also on the team. His older brother John was a mix of marksmen and support gunner. Thom was the second true marksman, who was also the owner of the EBR that matt was drooling over when we were in Intimidator’s. Alex’s father Lucas, was a former soldier like John. Terry Creed was once an FBI Agent, who had a bit of a beef with Alex a while back, -the short story was that, the vampire that attacked Alex before he became a hunter was Creed’s little brother- Then there were the Fulani brothers. Ardeth was the younger and piloted the teams airborne vehicles. Most notable was a star spangled MH-6 Little Bird, that was armed for war. Farid was the older of the two. Finally we had James. He was the team CQB and demolitions specialist. If it went boom he was happy.

The eighteen of us must have spent hours at those tables, eating and in case of the three of us newbies, listening to the team talk about previous jobs when more of the patrons had gone. It sounded like the team had just gotten back from another job dealing with some sort of yeti in Greenland, and I was amazed at that little bit of information. This company must get a lot of frequent flier miles, if they were doing jobs in Greenland.

“Alex.” Pat called from where he sat at the far end of the table. 

“What’s up Pat?” The other hunter asked.

“We got us a game, and I want you to take the new guys and take lead on this one.” I tilted my head. When Pat said ‘game’ did that mean we had a monster to deal with, but judging from how the rest of the team reacted, it couldn’t have been anyone else.

“Alright then.” Alex said getting up, and placing a hundred dollar bill on the table. “Text me the details Pat. Clare, James, you guys are with me. Newbies you too and,” he paused to assess the rest of the team. “Dimitri, Kai, Belle, and Farid.”

The ten of us got up, paid for our food, and headed for our cars. MHI’s compound was located where an old rock crusher once was. It was also a munitions factory in World War I, but it was shut down, when an explosion killed hundreds of its workers. It was haunted ever since, at least it was until MHI had come along and renovated the place. The main building of the compound was built into the old rock crusher, but that’s all we got to really see as we pulled into the garage, that connected to the armory. 

“Get your armor and weapons together newbies, you’re in for a trial by fire.” Alex said as he headed towards the armory. “We’re taking care of a vampire.”

“Where at Alex?” James asked, as he took a large Smith and Wesson 500 from his Jeep Wrangler.

“We’re going to Fulton.” I felt my blood chill, at Alex’s words. “It’s where we first fought those cultists all those years ago.

“Great.” James said rolling his eyes. “We gotta go back there. You know I should have placed C-four around the whole damn thing and collapsed it when I had the chance.”

“Well James, you might get your chance this time around.” Clare said following her husband into the armory. 

It was an hour later, when we arrived back in my shithole of a home town. The sun had set by then, and the only light in the sky came from the stars. the building Alex had mentioned was right in the heart of Fulton, right on the bank of the river that divided the city in half. It used to be an old office building, and I remember hearing gunfire coming from the vicinity of this building years ago, but I thought some gang members had gotten into it with the cops. I realize now that must have been the cover story made up by the MCB. Now that old building was covered in crime scene police tape, and a lot of its windows had boarded up. 

“Alright, we’re up against a vampire, so that means wights on top of our mark.” Alex said getting out of the drivers seat of one of the large black SUV’s we had rolled out in. In all honesty, I didn’t know how I felt about going up against a vampire as my first mission, especially when I was back home… Okay If I’m being honest with myself, I hated having to call this place home. Yeah, despite the fact that mom lived here, I never really thought of this place as home, and I’d be real glad once we got this job done, got payed, and got back to the compound. 

“How do we go about this Alex?” Kai Leng asked, as she racked the charging handle on her M249 Para variant SAW LMG. 

“We’re gonna insert the same way the original eight of us did years ago. There’s a door at the base of the river. We go in there, and work our way up. Everything in there is hostile, so nobody hesitate to pull the trigger.” It felt like Alex was speaking to the three of us rookies, rather than the more tried and tested members of the team.

“Once we’re in, we split up. Clear the place floor by floor.” Alex racked back the charging handle of a customized G3 rifle he called Gungnir. “Everyone keep their heads on a swivel in there.”

We moved silently along the riverbank, everyone plugging their noses at the stench of the soil under our boots. It would be fun getting the nasty ass dirt out of my boots when we got back. I felt a jolt of both excitement shoot through me when we finally reached the door Alex had mentioned. My grip on my Seiga tightened, as one by one, members of our team slowly disappeared into the old office. 

“Nervous?” Rocky asked as he turned his head to look at me over his shoulder. 

I nodded. “Yeah. What about you?”

“I’m scared shitless. Never thought I would be taking on a vampire as my first official job.” Rocky wasn’t kidding about being scared shitless. Even though there was no moon out, and the streetlights weren’t working due to the neighborhood punks vandalizing them, I could clearly see how pale his face was.

“Don’t worry. I was nervous on my first hunt as well.” Farid said from behind me, checking the laser sight on his H&K MP7. “Portland Maine. We fought a nest of harpies that had taken up roost there. My brother Ardeth and I were on vacation in South America when we were attacked by another nest.”

“So how did you get over your nerves?” I asked.

I thought I saw Farid smile, but as there was no light from the moon, or the streetlights I couldn’t tell. “Ardeth and I stole a Little Bird helicopter, while Kai Leng destroyed the nest with that machine gun she favors so much.” 

“Well here goes nothing.” Rocky said taking a deep breath, and disappearing into the doorway. A moment later, I followed him noting that the door hung on one hinge, and there was a large indentation where someone’s boot had made contact with it. Whoever kicked this door in the first time was a freaking tank.

Alex was at the foot of the stairs at the end of a long hallway. Once all of us had filed inside, Alex spoke in a low voice. “Movement on the next floor. Wights. Everyone be careful and don’t let them touch you. Dimitri are you in position?”

 _“Da.”_ Dimitri’s voice spoke over our comm channel. _“There are a lot of cold spots over the thermal scope, and the target is on the top floor.”_

“Why are they always on the top floor?” James asked, sliding a shell into his Benelli and cycling the action to chamber the round?

“Alright cut the chatter, and split up. Clare, and the three newbies are with me. We’re going to the left. Belle take James, Kai, and and Farid and head right.” Everyone nodded at Alex’s orders, and the more experienced hunters of the team went up the stairs to the right, while the rest of us took the stairs to the left.

My stomach dropped when I saw the next room. Wights were packed in the room. Wall to wall, and window to window. I felt my blood turn to ice when one of the wights alerted all the others to our presence with a loud ear-piercing cry. I didn’t even remember flicking the firing mode on my Seiga to fire on auto, but I had raised my Russian made shotgun, and ten rounds filled with the quadrangle buckshot I bought from Intimidator shredded almost a third of the wights in the room. My ten rounds clicked empty, and I felt someone pull me out of the way.

“Nice one rookie.” Alex said, before firing Gungnir crouching low, while Clare stood behind him firing a PDW variant of a Scar assault rifle. I felt a smile cross my face, as I dug out a magazine filled with ten three-inch shells. I loaded it into the mag port, and racked back the charging handle as Alex and Clare both clicked empty. 

Matt and Rocky stepped in, once Alex and Clare ran empty. Matt with his beloved shortened FAL, while Rocky had a Mossberg pump gun in his hands. The eight blasts of the shotgun drowned out the chirps made by Matt’s suppressed rifle. “It’s clear.” Matt said, as he moved into the room, that looked like some sort of explosion had happened in here. There was also an assortment of odd objects, mostly red cloth with what looked like … A satanic cross?

“Told you didn’t I?” Alex said, as he crouched down next to me. I jumped at the sound of his beretta firing a single shot. My eyes rested on his Beretta, -a custom job made to look like Barry Burton’s from the Resident Evil games- and soon found why he had let a shot off. One of the wights had been bisected by one of our guns, but it hadn’t been killed and was slowly clawing its way towards me. “We engaged satanic cultists here a few years ago.” 

“Thanks for the save I owe you one.” Alex smiled and shook his head at my remark as he holstered his sidearm. “Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot rookie.” Alex said, as we made our way to the door at the far end of the room.

“Why does it look like an explosion went off in this room? Floor is torn up, a lot of the windows are boarded up.” Both Alex, and Clare exchanged a small knowing smile.

“When we were first in here, James fired a forty millimeter shell from a semi-automatic grenade launcher.” Clare said reloading her Scar PDW. “Tore the floor up, blew the windows out, and killed everything unfortunate to get caught in the blast.”

Everyone jumped when a large explosion sent a shockwave through the building, making Alex roll his eyes. “He did it again didn’t he Belle?”

 _“Yeah he did.”_ Isabelle said over the line. _“We should hurry up for the cops come. We all know how complicated it is trying to explain all our guns to the local law enforcement.”_

Then something else grabbed my attention. Another rifle report, but it seemed far away. “Was that Dimitri?” I asked, hearing shrieks from the floor above.

“Yeah that was him.” Alex said, motioning for us to follow. “Come on Belle’s right. Let’s finish this and go home before the cops get here.”

The five of us raced up the stairs, and were greeted to one hell of a sight at the second floor landing. There were wights in this room as well, but they were dropping like flies from another shooter who was making holes in the plywood that had taken the place of where the glass windows had once been. That shooter had to undoubtedly be Dimitri. 

“Gotta hand it to Dimitri, he’s good.” Matt said, as a trio of rounds made several new holes in the plywood, and took down three more wights. 

“Well don’t just stand there rookies.” Clare said. “Give him a hand.”

The three of us didn’t need telling twice. The room was cleared by two shotguns. One pump, the other on full auto. And a thirty round suppressed and shortened FAL in a matter of seconds. The three of us systematically reloaded our weapons, as we slowly made our way through the room.

“Hey Clare, get a load of this.” We all turned towards Alex, and he motioned to the piece of plywood that Dimitri was shooting through. I thought I heard Clare say the words ‘show off’ but her words got drowned out by Matt’s whistle of appreciation. Dimitri had made that horned smiley face I saw on both the chainlink razor wired fence, and the side of Earl Harbinger’s bomber jacket when I first arrived at MHI. Alex’s phone clicked as he took a picture with his phone. “This is going on instagram.”

The second floor was cleared, which left only the top floor and our mark. We had the vampire in a pincer, and there was no way it was going to get away unless it blasted a hole in one of the walls. The top floor was the only one that still had working lights, and that vampire who turned out to be a male, who had blonde locks and a very bored expression on his face, was sitting in what had to unmistakably be a golden throne.

“You infiltrate my home.” He sighed. “You kill my minions, and now you come to kill me.” He got to his feet and stepped away from that throne. Nine hunters snapped their weapons up. Some of us had rifles, others like myself had the vampire’s head in the sights of our shotguns.

“Keep your guns on him.” Alex said, and my eyes widened when he set his weapons against a wall. 

“Boss what the hell are you doing?” Rocky asked, his eyes moving from the vampire, to Alex, and then back to the vampire.

“Sometimes you gotta get your hands dirty rookie. And don’t call me ‘boss’.” Alex dropped into a fighting stance, and gave a ‘come and get me’ gesture with his right hand. The vampire snarled, and became a blur of motion to me as he punched and kicked, lashing out at Alex. To my surprise, as well as Matt’s and Rockie’s, Alex ducked and blocked the strikes moving even faster than the attacking vampire. The vampire doubled over, its eyes widened in shock when Alex’s left fist dug into the vampire’s abdomen. Our team leader followed up by digging his right boot, ball first into the vampire’s face, again moving way too fast to the normal human eye. The vampire flew back into his throne, knocking it over and going ass over teakettle when the throne was knocked over.

“How dare you…” The vampire snarled at Alex, and the two circled one another like a pair of wolves. With another snarl, the Vampire started swinging at Alex again, but the hunter was much faster than his quarry. Alex ducked under each strike effortlessly, and retaliated by bringing his right palm up under the vampire’s chin. The strike was so powerful, it lifted the vampire off his feet and into the air. Roaring as he struck, Alex plunged his right fist not into, but through the vampire’s abdomen. He dropped to his knees coughing up blood, that didn’t pour out of the wound he suffered quite literally at Alex his hands.

“Rookies, get over here and finish him.” Alex said motioning to us with his left arm, while trying to shake off blood from his right hand. The three of us looked at each other in shock. Did he really want the three of us to take this vampire out? “Rookies. He won’t have that hole in his gut forever.”

I flicked the safety on my Seiga on, and grabbed one of the dual Peacemaker’s. The other I tossed to Matt, as we stood behind the vampire. Matt and I aiming the two revolvers, and Rocky aiming the barrel of his Mossberg at the vampire’s head. 

_“And shepards we shall be."_  
_"For thee, my Lord for thee."_  
_"Power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command."_  
_"So we shall flow a river forth to thee."_  
_"And teeming with souls shall it ever be."_  
_"In Nomine Patris, et Fili, et Spritus Sancti.”_

Two bullet holes, blasted out the vampire’s eyes when Matt and I fired my Peacemaker revolvers, while Rockie’s Mossberg disintegrated his head. Matt tossed back my Peacemaker, as the rest of our team applauded.

“Nice one rookies.” James said, smiling broadly with his phone in his hands. “Pat’s gonna love this.” 

“Let’s notify Locke, get the Puff bounty on this son of a bitch and go home.” Alex said, right before a chorus of howls shattered the quiet that had followed Alex’s words. First wights and vampire’s, and now werewolves. Somehow I got the feeling that this was gonna be a really long night.

 _“Alex.”_ Dimitri’s voice said over our coms. _“Multiple contacts on thermal. I make out at least two dozen closing on your position fast.”_

Alex cursed under his breath, as he fastened his weapons onto their proper places on his armor. “Alright, listen up. We’re heading back to the SUV’s, use the riverbank so our scents are diluted just in case they are onto us. Fire only if you have a clear shot.”

There was a satisfying sound of charging handles racking back, and actions being cycled, as ten hunters headed for the kicked in door and the horrid smelling riverbank. The howls grew louder as the wolves closed in on us, and I felt my stomach drop when several large shapes vaulted over the guardrail a dozen feet above us separating the road from the riverbank, across the now dried up river, and landing on the bank opposite us. Several of us, myself, Matt, and Rocky included turned and opened up on the large dark shapes that were undoubtedly the werewolves. I heard the unmistakable sound of several pained yelps right before the wolves dropped. I heard the sound of Dimitri’s rifle discharge, and with another pained yelp, another wolf dropped down right in front of me with a hole in its head, right between the eyes, and its lower jaw missing.

I was on the verge of making some sort of comment about Dimitri’s skill with a rifle, when my breath hitched in my throat. Another wolf dropped down right in front of me, and there were no bullet holes in this one. It’s fangs were bared, and I saw in slow motion its clawed right hand cock back to take a swipe at me. That wolf never got a chance to swing. I pressed the barrel of my Seiga against its chest, and blasted a foot-wide hole in the wolf’s chest, and out through its back. I felt its blood splatter against my face, as it was blown back into the center of the dried up river.

“Nice shot!” Matt yelled before firing his suppressed FAL, and put ten rounds into another wolf who had landed on the opposite riverbank. It was overkill in my opinion, as Matt had hit the wolf in the head with his first shot, and was just giving these wolves further cause to want us for dinner.

“Everyone cross the river now!” Clare yelled, as she dropped another wolf with a trio of rounds burst-fired from her Scar PDW. Nobody needed telling twice. We all made a break for the opposite bank, but Rocky swore something nasty, and made some sort of horrible gagging sound. My blood turned to ice for a second time that night, when I turned around, and saw that a wolf had Rocky by the throat. He had been lifted several feet into the air, the wolf was choking the life out of him, and I didn’t have a clear shot. Not with my Seiga anyway.

I let the Russian shotgun drop, allowing the sling to catch it. I drew my full-sized Sig from where it was holstered on my right hip, and the laser sighting painted a target directly on the center of the wolf’s head. I fired off three shots, and the wolf dropped Rocky into the mud. I raced over and hauled him to his feet, as he gasped for air. Matt grabbed his right arm as I placed Rockie’s right arm around my shoulders, and we began hauling him back to the opposite riverbank.

Two more wolves landed in front of the three of us, snarling and baring their fangs as they prepared to rush us. I lit up the wolf on the right, with my Sig’s laser sight, and put six more PowR Ball hollow point rounds that were specially made for MHI into the things chest. The wolf twitched and jerked six times, coming to a rest on the slime covered brick, and leaving a trail of blood as it slid down into the mud of the riverbank. The second wolf crouched low, and looked like it was a split second from launching itself from the three of us. It never happened, as Alex tackled the thing into the mud. Our temporary team leader, landed on the werewolf’s back, and inserted his fingers into the wolf’s mouth. With a tremendous roar, ripped the top of the werewolf’s head off.

The three of us stared at Alex in disbelief for what seemed like hours, as he stood up in slow motion, and drew his beretta. Without even looking at the three of us, he pointed his customized sidearm at us, and pulled the trigger. The silver round snapped past our ears, and we heard another yelp of pain. Matt, Rocky, and myself all turned around, and saw another wolf standing there directly behind us with what seemed to be a surprised look on its face, and a .40 sized bullet hole in its head. The wolf stayed upright for a moment longer, before toppling sideways into the mud.

“Dimitri, anymore hostile contacts?” Alex asked our marksman, as he placed his sidearm back into its holster. 

_“Negative Alex.” Our marksman replied. “All wolves are down.”_

“Good. Call Locke, and have him pick up the bodies. After that, get down here and let’s go home.”

Isabelle thuroughly examined Rocky once everyone was back at our teams SUV’s. He was shaken up, but there was no damage done to his throat, and no bite marks anywhere on his body. “Can we just go home now?” He asked in a slightly hoarse voice.

The ten of us all piled into the SUV’s after the MCB showed up and retrieved the bodies of the twenty four werewolves, the seventy plus wights, and a six month old vampire that had claimed twenty three victims. With Matt’s math, the PUFF check our team would get, was upwards of somewhere around 2.5 mil. The hour ride back to the compound was shorter than I thought it was, mainly because I was falling in and out of sleep the entire car ride back. When we finally pulled into the garage of the compound, I had barely registered putting my rifle’s and Seiga into a weapons locker. I kept my full-sized Sig with me, just in case anything tried to surprise me.

The barracks of MHI’s Syracuse compound were on the second floor, and Alex said to just pick a room that wasn’t occupied by one of the team. I chose one on the far end of the long hallway on the right hand side. I thought that there was just going to be a basic looking room with a semi-comfortable bed, however the team leader Pat had used some of the team’s funding to make each room a replicant of a five-star Presidential suite. I sighed in immense relief, balled my clothes up, tossed them into one corner of the room, and must have spent at least two hours in that shower before I turned in for the night. I was asleep the second my head hit the pillow.


	5. Chapter 5

I don’t know how long I was asleep for, however when I woke up Matt and Rocky were standing there smiling down at me. Rocky had a large cup of Dunkin Doughnuts coffee in his hand, that he handed to me when I sat up. “You looked like a hazelnut type of guy to me.” He said handing me the large styrofoam cup. 

“How long was I out for?” I asked slightly groggy, as I took a large gulp from the coffee cup and sighing in relief when the hazelnut flavored liquid hit my tongue.

“It’s one in the afternoon.” Matt said tossing a pair of pants on my bed. “You’ve been asleep for over twelve hours.”

“Twelve hours?” I repeated before taking another large gulp from the coffee cup. “We don’t have another job do we?”

“Not yet.” Rocky said, after I had gotten my jeans on and secured my full-sized Sig Saur to my belt.

“You got any decent clothes in this thing?” Matt asked rifling through the duffel I had packed all my clothes into, finally tossing me a shirt with the crest of the United States Marine Corps printed on the front. I was never a Marine myself, I was a twenty three year old Junior in college. However I had thought about signing up multiple times, but every time I asked my dad if he woul help me out and put in a good word for me. But every time he declined, saying he wanted me to continue my education. But I know the real reason was because, he didn’t want to have to end up burying me if anything happened while I was in combat. Hell he wasn’t happy about my telling him I’d be postponing my education to become what I told him was a ‘civilian contractor.’ Technically speaking I wasn’t wrong, but I couldn’t let him know what I was really doing. Otherwise the MCB might have sent someone like Agent Franks after him. Getting back on topic, that shirt was something I had bought at the State Fair, just to show my support for the US Armed Forces. Don’t judge me, I’m not just a gun nut, I’m also a supporter of all men and women serving in all branches of the United States Military, and if I haven’t mentioned it before, the son of a Marine Gunnery Sargent. Yeah super patriotic right?

“Come on man.” Rocky said after I pulled the shirt over my head, and placed my arms through the shortened sleeves. “Pat wants to properly scope out the newbies.”

Our teams leader was located at the rec room on the third floor of the compound. He was sharpening a large Bowie knife. There was a Tarus Judge revolver lying in pieces on the table where he was sitting as well. “So only one day as part of the team, and you go up against wights, vampires, and werewolves.”

“We weren’t expecting the werewolves boss.” Matt said, then added in a hasty tone. “Can I call you boss?”

“Yeah that’s fine.” He said sheathing his Bowie knife. “Alex said you handled yourselves pretty good last night.” Pat then touched the screen of his cell phone, and I could hear the three of us reciting the MacManus brother’s prayer.

“We weren’t trying to show off with that boss.” Rocky said rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. 

“No what that was, was being badass.” I felt relief wash over me at our team leader’s words. “Boondock Saints is one of my all time favorite movies. Just do me a favor, make sure I’m with you the next time the three of you decide to do that. And for the love of God relax, you guys look like you’re about to pass out. Relax and take a seat. The only time you’d ever be fucked with me, is if you ended up shooting a civilian.” 

I hadn’t realized that I had been holding my breath, but a second wave of relief washed over me when I exhaled and sank into the chair next to Pat. “Is that a Judge?” I asked, eyeing the disassembled revolver. Oh sure I knew what that weapon was even when it was in pieces, but I’d never seen one up close before.

“Yeah it is.” Pat said smiling, as he reassembled his weapon. “I bought it from Intimidator’s a few years ago. I call it the Samaritan.”

“Hellboy.” Rocky said eyeing the Judge.

“Nice.” Pat responded as the revolver spun in his right hand. “Yeah I’m not a very good shot, luckily the Samaritan here-”

“Shoots really big bullets.” The four of us said at the same time. It was silent for a few seconds, before we started laughing. We must have talked over an hour about what happened last night, and what the three of us fought against and killed to get noticed by MHI, before Pat’s phone rang.

“Hello?” He spoke into the receiver, and the three of us shared a look when Pat’s smile faded. “Earl, what’s going on? Fort Bragg? We’re on our way.” He hung up and turned his attention to the three of us. 

“Get your armor on rookies. It’s game time.”

Matt, Rocky, and I were racing towards the armory before Patt had finished speaking. I couldn’t stop the feeling of unease in my stomach as I put on my armor. My dad was on base at Fort Bragg, I was hoping against hope that nothing had happened to him. If we could get down there before whatever nasty thing was terrorizing the base in North Carolina, and kill it before it set its sights on my dad the happier I’d be. I placed my full-sized Sig into the hip holster on my right where it was placed last night, while my smaller Sig was secured under my left armpit. I placed an extended twenty round magazine of three inch shells all packed with quadrangle buckshot into my Seiga. Whatever monster was spotted in North Carolina, I wasn’t taking any chances due to it being into close proximity to my dad. I double checked the mags I had for my Galil before I loaded one into the rifle. I unsheathed my katana enjoying the slight ring it made when it cleared the polished oak wood scabbard.

Another katana lightly clashed with my own, making me jump slightly. “Your sword is very well made.” Kai Leng said placing her own blade back into its scabbard, before proceeding to put her armor on. 

Soon all eighteen hunters that composed our team had all their armor and weapons assembled, and we were making our way towards to my surprise and airfield. The Syracuse team had two airborne vehicles. The MH-6 Little Bird, and a Vietnam era Paratrooper plane which everyone boarded.

“What are we after Patrick?” The younger of the Fulani brothers, Ardeth asked our team leader as he made his way to the cockpit.

Pat shook his head, as he sat down. This plane had some work done on it, as the steel benches that one would normally see in most military planes designed for Paratroopers, had been replaced with what looked like twenty or so first class seats. My guess is that the first few rides the team had taken in this plane had been so uncomfortable, they had opted to replace the aircraft’s benches with these seats. “Earl only said something about it being a very large mountain cat or a lion.”

“Has to be a chimera.” Alex’s younger brother Thom said, as he sat down in another one of the seats.

“Undoubtedly a chimera.” Kai said, and Thom smiled. But his smile faltered as she took a seat next to me. “Either that, or a hellcat.”

“Well it won’t kill itself with us just sitting around talking about whatever it might be.” Pat said, before turning towards the cockpit. “Ardeth get her in the air.”

“Of course.” The younger of the Fulani brothers replied. “But first, the proper music.” A smile crossed everyone’s faces when AC/DC’s Shoot to Thrill blared through the plane’s speakers. Apparently the seats weren’t the only thing the team had renovated. Ardeth had installed a kick-ass speaker system inside the plane. The music drowned out the plane’s engines, but it couldn’t take away that feeling of nervous excitement that jolts through someone whenever an aircraft took off.

It was several hours later that our aircraft touched down with special clearance from the air tower at Fort Bragg. When the eighteen of us had disembarked, we were in for a surprise. Earl Harbinger and his team were waiting for us, all armed and ready for whatever it was that was here. “Well that explains the special clearance.” Pat said flicking his safety off of his Halo sighted M4 rifle.

“Well we needed you on the ground as soon as possible.” Earl replied exhaling smoke from the lit cigarette in his mouth. “The situation here is worse than we thought.”

“Worse how?” Alex asked, brushing the smoke out of his face.

“You’re going to want to hear this for yourself Morrison.” Earl replied, and motioned for us to follow. I felt my cheeks redden when Holly Newcastle winked at me.

A soldier dressed in military fatigues was waiting for us standing stiff as a board. At Earl’s prompting, the soldier launched into an explanation. “At oh-eight-hundred, a report of a wild cat being sighted in the mess hall was filled with Captain Roberts. Animal control was notified, and arrived at ten-hundred. That was the last anyone saw of them, until around twelve-thirty Sir.”

“What happened?” Pat asked the soldier, as he led us towards the mess hall in question. 

“When Private Jacobs went to check, he came out of the hall in a panic Sir. He reported he saw the large cat, but it wasn’t like anything he’d ever seen.” The soldier paused, stopped and turned to face us. “Private Jacobs reported that what he had seen, had the body and head head of a lion, but also the head of a goat, and a large snake where the tail should be.”

“Chimera.” All of us said at the same time.

“That’s not all.” The soldier continued. “Jacobs also reported to have seen several of these … Chimera’s. One of which was feasting on the corpse of one of the animal control men we called in.”

“How many chimera’s did Privat Jacobs see soldier?” Pat asked, as he had resumed walking towards the mess hall.

“He reported seeing three, but he also said their might have been more.” The soldier took his cap off to scratch the top of his shaved head once we had reached the mess hall in question. There were soldiers heavily armed, aiming an assortment of M4’s and M16 rifles at the mess hall. I saw a few with M60’s, and thought I caught a glimpse of a sniper’s scope from one of the neighboring buildings in the early afternoon sunlight. Humvees armed with .50 caliber machine guns had also surrounded the building. 

“I don’t see those Chimera’s getting out of this little blockade alive.” Rocky said, running a hand slowly along the stock of his H&K 33A2. His rifle like my Galil was an ACE custom job. It had a collapsible stock, pistol grip and trigger job, a ported barrel, and a Trijicon TA31 4X32 ACOG scope. 

“I hear you.” I said, flicking the safety off of my Galil as Earl’s team of eight, and our beefed up twenty man team moved past the military blockade.

Another heavily armed soldier stepped up to us. By the looks of him, he wasn’t happy to see a group of civilian contractors carrying an assortment of modified automatic weapons. “Not that I don’t appreciate the added firepower you civilians are adding, but I would prefer if you stood back behind…” His words cut off as he set his eyes on me. “James!?”

All eyes, hunter and soldier focused on me wondering what was going on. I sighed, and said in a resigned voice. “Hey dad.”

“James just what in the fuck are you doing here!?” My dad growled at me. 

“You remember that talk we had about the Second Amendment? The one you said only applied to cops and members of the armed forces?” I asked, my voice not wavering in the slightest as I asked my question.

“What about it?” My dad asked.

“I’m exercising that right as a private citizen.” I smirked patting my Galil.

All further conversation ceased as an unbelievably loud roar made us all jump. The glass of the mess hall windows shattered, as several chimera’s leapt out in a shower of shattered glass. All of us including my dad vaulted over the humvees, at the same moment dad yelled. “OPEN FIRE!”

Even though I had a pair of MHI issue electronic earplugs in my ears, the sound of all the overlapping gunfire was almost deafening. Once I had recovered from going ass over teakettle from vaulting over a humvee, I snapped up my Galil, zeroed in on the largest chimera, and squeezed the trigger. I was aiming for the lion’s head, but the chimera moved to the side, and I ended up hitting the goat’s head right above the main of golden fur of the lion’s body. I saw the white fur of the goat’s head explode like a disgusting moldy watermelon, and even though I’d missed my intended target, it was still satisfying to see one of the chimera heads explode.

“Nice shot Jimmi!” I heard Matt yell over the gunfire.

“What are you talking about!?” I said as I tried to get a bead on the lion’s head. “I missed!” 

“Well it was pretty good for a miss Hendrix!” I think that might have been Connor, as he ducked behind one of the humvees to reload his big M60.

I heard the distinct report of a rifle being discharged, and a moment later, the lion’s head of the chimera I had been trying to focus on exploded in a fountain of blood and brain matter. Although I couldn’t tell weather it was Dimitri, Thom, Julie, -Owen’s wife who was the markswoman on Earl’s team- Or one of the Marine snipers who had taken positions on the many roofs.

“How is it still standing!?” My dad’s voice roared from next to me over all the gunfire.

“It’s got three heads!” Alex yelled as he took cover behind the humvee to reload Gungnir. “That means three of everything! Hearts, lungs, brains! Shoot two heads off it can still move!” A large 40mm casing fell from the open port of Gungnir’s undermounted launcher, right before he slid another explosive shell into the launcher. He popped up from his cover, and discharged the shell he had just loaded into Gungnir’s undermounted launcher, at the same time Owen let a 40mm shell loose from his custom Saiga -I later found out that it was a Milo Anderson special called Abomination-. The explosive shells hit the lion’s head at the same time, and the golden mane of the chimera vanished in a hail of fire and silver shrapnel.

I stood back up to fire, when I saw the serpent head of the Chimera that had two of its three heads destroyed, quickly slither and jump towards me. It happened again, just like last night with the werewolf I killed with my Seiga. Time seemed to slow down, I felt my eyes widen, and felt someone grab my arm and pull me down. I looked up just in time to see Rocky turn the serpent’s head into red mist when Rocky pulled the trigger on his Mossberg.

“Thanks for that!” I said breathlessly, and also with a relieved sigh.

“Hey I owed you didn’t I?” Rocky said, extending his hand helping me to my feet. “Besides which we still have two more two of those ugly bastards to kill!”

A second chimera charged forward, and almost everyone opened up on it. Bullets ripped into the golden fur of the lion’s leg and mane. It lost its balance and slid along the asphalt, rolling along the pavement like a bad car wreck. Connor and Kai Leng continued firing, being supported by the gunners on the mounted .50 cal. The serpent’s head was turned into red mist, the goat’s head was blasted into a billion tiny pieces, and the lion’s head was turned into hamburger.

“Better make that one.” Connor said, a satisfied smirk on his face as he and Kai ducked behind to reload their LMGs. 

Remember when I said that life could be difficult if not weird? Well here’s one of those times. The final chimera charged with another loud glass shattering roar. The only head that had been destroyed on this one, was the goat. The four large paws of the lion’s body moved almost blindingly fast. The mouth of the lion was pulled back in a snarl, and the serpent’s tail swayed back and forth almost hypnotically. There was no way that anyone was going to get their guns up in time. Like I had last night with my Seiga, I let go of my Galil, allowing the sling to catch it it, and drew the katana sheathed and strapped to my left hip. I honestly had no idea what I was thinking, I just knew that we couldn’t let that chimera get off the base. Right when the chimera jumped to clear the humvees, I swung with the three-soul blade. There was a long moment where I thought I had missed it. That I was just standing there with my katana outstretched, sun reflecting off of the steel blade. Then I heard something collapse to the pavement with a wet splattering sound.

“Dude that was fucking awesome!” I heard Owen exclaim, before I felt his large hand on my shoulder, giving it a congratulatory shake. 

“You mean I killed it!?” I asked breathlessly astonished. Owen turned me around, and I saw the third chimera lying sliced in half on the pavement bleeding into the asphalt. 

“That’s two badass moments in less than twenty four hours dude!” Matt said stepping up to my left, and the two of us bumped fists without even looking at each other.

“Well this is all well and good.” My dad said, and I turned to face him. He looked pale after what had happened. But then again who wouldn’t look pale after fighting three chimeras? “But will someone tell me what the hell is going on!?”

 

…

“So you’re telling me that you left college to become a … A monster bounty hunter?” I had explained everything that had happened up to and after Matt and I had been attacked by the five werewolves. Our training at MHI, and the two jobs we had since being assigned to Pat’s team, one of which had just been completed.

“Yeah dad. That’s exactly what I did.” I replied wiping chimera blood off of my katana.

“Wow that is so cool!” I sighed and rolled my eyes at the excitement given off by Anthony. My younger sixteen year old step-brother. He loved everything to do with the supernatural, and I just knew that as long as I was here, I’d get bombarded with no end of questions about what I now do for a living. I’d have to exercise caution though. While I could tell Anthony, his older eighteen year old sister Jillian, and my step-mother Marlyn due to them somehow having witnessed the showdown with the chimeras, I didn’t want to share too much information about MHI.

“Yeah it is Tony.” I said placing my katana back into its scabbard. “But you have to promise me one thing, and you have to stick to this promise.” 

“What is it?” He asked curiously.

“Never tell anyone else about what you saw here today.”

“Why not?” Jillian asked in irritation. My younger step-sister was while irritated, really freaked out about what just went down. Although nothing about her facial features except that far off look in her eyes gave away just how freaked out she was.

“It’s a federal law that’s why.” I said trying to calm her down, although I was clearly failing to do that.

“If it’s a federal law.” Dad started. I could tell he wanted answers. “How is it I’ve never heard of it before.”

“That’s an easy one.” I replied. “It’s because you’ve never heard of the agency that enforces it. Because, up until today, you’ve never came into contact with a supernatural creature.”

“He’s right Gunnery Sargent Woods.” A voice said from somewhere behind me. I knew who that was. 

“Agent Locke.” I gave the Agent a small wave of greeting, which he returned.

“Just who are you?” My dad asked the acting director of the MCB.

“Agent James Locke. I’m the acting director of the agency you’ve never heard of due to your lack of contact with the supernatural.” 

“And what brings you here Mr. Locke?” Dad asked Locke.

“I’m here to press upon you my insistance you stay silent about what you’ve seen here today.” The MCB director said in response to my dad’s question.

Jillian nudged my arm. “What does he mean by that?” She asked, although I think she might have already knew the answer.

“What he means is: Don’t ever mention what you saw here to anyone, or…” I drew my right thumb across my throat, in order to emphasize the consequences of what would happen should she not stay silent about today. I saw my step-mother’s skin become pale, Anthony hid himself behind his older sister, who placed herself in front of him, and dad’s jaw tighten and his fists clench, as if daring Locke to try and point a gun at his wife and children.

“Trust me Mr. Woods, I would much rather forget that today had ever happened. However should you and your family keep their words to stay silent, I give you my word, that you will never see me nor anyone else from my agency again.” Dad seemed to be calmed down by Locke’s words.

“Um hey, James?” I turned to Anthony who was still hiding slightly behind Jillian. 

“What’s up Tony?” I asked, turning my attention to my step-brother.

“What do werewolves really look like?” My eyebrows came together as I thought about that for a second. 

“They’re about seven to eight feet tall. Stand on two legs, but when they charge at you, they move on all four. Razor sharp claws and teeth. And their fur varies in color…” I paused as my sentence trailed off, a split-second before I put two and two together. “Why are you asking anyways?”

“Because there are werewolves standing on that roof.” My head followed where he pointed, and I felt my blood chill. There were ten of them all in a low crouch on the roof of the mess hall. 

“CONTACT!” I yelled at the same time as Locke. One of the wolves howled, and they charged at us. But there were more than just ten of them, I think a full three or four dozen more. Hunters and soldiers snapped up their weapons, and opened up on the wolves. They dropped sure, but the wolves barreled through the blockade the military humvees made around the mess hall, and made a beeline straight for me. I snapped up my Galil, and quickly zeroed in on the wolf leading the charge. I fired in short three bursts, trying to take down as many of the charging snarling wolves as I could before my rifle’s magazine clicked empty. When that horrifying sound of my rifle finally clicking empty reached my ears, I let it go, and brought out my Seiga. I was glad I had loaded it with its extended twenty round magazine, as twenty rounds of quadrangle buckshot was expelled from the Russian made shotgun. I was pulling the trigger so fast, it was almost like I had set the shotgun to fire on full auto. But my stomach dropped again, when my Seiga clicked empty, the wolves were right on top of me, and there was no time to reload or go for my two other sidearms.

“Get the fuck away from my family!” My dad screamed and opened up on the closest wolf with his M4. It yelped in pain, and dropped to the ground. I saw locke had drawn as well. He had a pair of Desert Eagles. Both Locke and my dad had provided me time to reload, but I didn’t do it. 

“Get in here!” I yelled at my two step-siblings, as I wrenched open the door to one of the humvees that was farther away from the combat. I shoved Anthony and Jillian inside, then grabbed my step-mother, and put her into the vehicle as well. I hit the release on both the Seiga and the Galil, and both plastic empty magazines hit the asphalt with a loud clatter. I had just gotten a second twenty round extended drum into my Seiga, when I heard someone yell at me to check my six. I whirled around, and I swore I felt my heart stop. Seven feet of grey-furred werewolf was standing not two inches in front of me, its razor sharp fangs were bared, and oh damn was its breath horrible. 

I had no chance to get my weapon up. The wolf opened its mouth in its preparation to bite, and I knew I was screwed about eight ways from Sunday … Or I would have been if a trio of rounds didn’t bury themselves into the left of the werewolf’s left temple. The grey-furred wolf spun 90 degrees, and the back of its head bumped against the bumper when it collapsed to the ground. Eyes wide, I spun to see who had just saved my ass ex-machina-style, and saw Kai Leng with a surppressed Tac 45 in her left hand. She turned her sidearm up, and let loose three more rounds. Something heavy collapsed against the roof of the humvee, and panicked screaming came from the inside of the military vehicle when the werewolf Kai had just ended caused the roof of said vehicle to slightly cave in.

“Thanks for that.” I said, managing a weak smile when Kai joined me.

“Well then, the first round’s on you when this is over.” Kai said rather cheekily, dumping the last four rounds in her sidearm into the head and back of another charging werewolf. “Care to cover me? I need to reload.”

I was more than happy to return the favor. I snapped up my Galil, and zeroed my Trijicon RMR reflex sight on a werewolf with black fur. I squeezed the trigger, and a trio of rounds made the werewolf’s right leg give out. I moved my rifle’s scope so the small red dot rested on the creature’s head. Three more 30 caliber rounds to the head put an end to that wolf. I zeroed in on another wolf, this one had silver fur. I put three rounds into its abdomen, three more into its right shoulder, then three more into its head at the eye.

My magazine clicked empty, and I went fishing for a fresh one, when I was lifted off of my feet by a pair of clawed hands. My eyes widened, and I gasped for air, when I came nose to snout with a light brown furred werewolf. It snarled at me, but it’s long clawed fingers didn’t close around my throat. Nor did it bite me. Instead it did something that chilled me to the core.

The werewolf spoke.

“The Alpha want’s you.” It snarled at me.

The wolf was then forced to let go of me, when something tackled it to the ground. I hit the asphalt, and dropped to my knees trying to get air back into my lungs, which wasn’t easy when I was coughing and sputtering. When I was finally able to breathe properly, I saw who it was who had tackled the werewolf who spoke to me. Rocky had the wolf on it’s back, and was wailing on it with the fingers of his right hand inserted into a pair of brass knuckles. No doubt the same knuckles he used to beat that vampire’s head into jelly back in Philly.

“Rock wait!” I yelled grabbing his arm, before he swung down again. “Don’t kill this one! Not this one!” 

“What!?” His question was incredulous. “Why not!?” 

“Yeah kid why not?” Earl asked, having jogged up and aiming his Thompson submachine gun at the wolf.

“It spoke to me.” I said, letting go of Rockie’s arm, and pointing my Sig at the wolf. Just because I didn’t want to kill it, doesn’t mean I wanted it doing anything but staying still.

“Spoke to you?” Earl asked with his brow furrowed. “What did it say?” 

“It said … It said the Alpha wanted me.”


	6. Chapter 6

Earl had set up a makeshift interrogation room in one of the empty hangar bays. The werewolf that had said that the Alpha that had sent this attack party turned out to be a rather attractive woman -I know right? Always a woman- somewhere between her late 20’s or early 30’s. Steel blue eyes, reddish brown hair that was unkempt and fell down to her shoulders. She was tightly bound to a chair by some real heavy-gage chain, and had no less than 10 rifles pointed at her. I almost felt bad for her. I mean yeah her and her … if you could call it a pack, had attacked a large Marine base that was occupied with two Hunter teams at the time. And she had tried, and ultimately failed to kidnap me and bring me to her Alpha. But if the situations were reversed, I would much rather have been shot than hog-tied via chain to a real uncomfortable looking chair, about to face what could become a real violent interrogation.

“Alright.” Earl began lighting up a cigarette. “Let’s start with something easy. What’s your name?”

The look that woman shot Earl in that moment. Now I’m not saying that a look could kill someone as badass as Earl Harbinger, but if looks could kill… Then as if she thought better than to incite someone like Earl, the woman spoke. “Riza, my name is Riza.”

“Alright, good start. Now thing’s are gonna pick up. Why did your Alpha send you to attack and kidnap my newest recruit?”

Riza sighed, and was silent for a few seconds. “It’s … complicated, and I don’t know all the details.”

“Well start with what you do know.” Pat said, stepping up to Earl’s side. His M4 was braced against his hip, and he had it aimed at Riza. “And don’t bullshit us.”

“Alright,” Riza began. “It was about I’d say close to a year ago. Two humans killed five members of our pack without getting a scratch on them.” I became uncomfortably aware that every Hunter’s eyes were on me and Matt when Riza said this. Riza followed everyone’s gaze, and her eyes fell on the two of us. “You two? But you’re pups.”

Earl sighed, and exhaled cigarette smoke from his mouth when he did. “Pups or not, they still put five wolves down without getting a scratch on them.”

Riza groaned and shook her head, as when Earl blew out the cigarette smoke, he blew it right into her face. “Well that got the attention of our Alpha. One of the wolves they killed was the brother of his second in command.”

“So…” I began, “We piss off your boss by killing the brother of his second in command. See where this gets confusing?”

“Look pup,” Riza coughed as Earl blew more smoke in her face. “I said it just a few seconds ago, that I don’t know all the details about what’s going on. I was just sent-”

“To take us to your Alpha.” Matt cut across.

“Wrong.” Riza barked. “My Alpha sent me to send a message. Now I don’t know how much you know about my kind, but we don’t exactly talk all that well while we’re seven foot tall killing machines. I meant to say that the Alpha wanted to talk to you.”

“Well he could have set a meeting, or at the very least called.” Earl growled, taking a long drag on his cigarette, before flicking it away.

“Well the extent of what I know is this. My Alpha’s second in command is in the middle of a hostile takeover of my pack, all because my Alpha refused to go after the humans who killed his brother.”

“So what? You’re a double in your pack at the moment?” Pat asked, brushing the smoke from Earl’s finished cigarette out of his face. Riza nodded, and Pat groaned taking out a cigarette of his own.

“Thought you quit Martin.” Earl said, handing my team leader his zippo.

“This situation is confusing and stressful as hell Earl.” Pat replied lighting the cigarette. “What do we do now? I mean we got a pissed off pack of wolves in the middle of a civil war with each other, who are also gunning for two of my three rookies.”

Earl lit up another cigarette after Pat handed him back his zippo. “Well until we get word from … if you could even call him or her and Alpha anymore, we do our jobs. Any more of this pack comes after us, specifically your two newbies, take ‘em down.”

“And what about her?” Alex asked gesturing to Riza.

“She goes with my team for now.” Earl replied, expelling more smoke. “We’ll keep an eye on her at all times. If she’s telling the truth about this Alpha, she’ll be useful in pointing out where these wolves lay their heads.” 

“I’ll have my men escort her back to Cazador Earl.” Locke said, holstering one of his twin D-gle’s.

 

About twenty minutes later, a humvee pulled up to the curb right outside my dad’s place followed by several SUV’s that Locke had lent to us. Earl had decided that against my wishes not to, my family as well as Matt’s should stay up at the Syracuse compound. I was against it, due to the fact that I didn’t want them anywhere near me or Matt should the pack we had pissed off try and make another attempt at me. However Earl while also being my boss, had said that all MHI compounds were so secure, you could drop a nuke on every last one of them, and you wouldn’t even feel it. He wasn’t phased by a few wolves. But I digress. Matt, Rocky, and I went in first just to make sure there wasn’t a werewolf waiting in ambush. There wasn’t, and my dad, step-mom, and siblings were soon inside packing everything they could. My attention was drawn to the back yard, where a large Mastiff stood at the glass doors to the kitchen, barking to be let inside.

“Easy Peretas, take it easy girl.” I said, opening the door. The large dog who was up to my chest barreled into me, knocking me on my ass, and proceeded to cover my face with happy licks.

“Woah who is this?” Rocky asked as he stepped into the kitchen, and his eyes fell onto the large dog.

“This is Peretas.” I said, and the Mastiff barked at the mention of her name, and I took that time to push the 200 plus pound Mastiff off me before wiping my face clean of dog slobber. “My dad named her after the Mastiff owned by Alexander The Great.”

“Is uh, is she friendly?” He asked, clearly nervous due to Peretas’ size and what he had just seen do to me..

“Peretas, go say hello to Rocky.” Peretas trotted over to the other hunter, and sat at his feet with her large tail wagging. Rocky smiled slightly, and ran his hand through Peretas’ large bushy mane of fur. A low rumbling growl sounded from the large Mastiff, as she closed her eyes, and her tail began to wag faster. 

“Oh look at that Rock you made a friend.” Matt said entering the kitchen, and squatting to rub Peretas’ sides. I’d brought Matt down here twice a few summers ago. He got along really well with my family, and especially with Peretas since Matt was a dog lover who unfortunately, had never gotten the chance to own a dog growing up. Peretas barked happily upon seeing Matt, and in one swipe of her large tongue, licked Matt from the bottom of his chin, to the top of his forehead.

“Eww, gross Peretas!” Matt laughed trying to rub dog slobber off his face. 

“So is she gonna come with us?” Rocky asked. 

I’d grabbed Peretas’ leash from the key rack that was right next to the sliding glass doors that led from the kitchen into the back yard. “She’s a good guard dog so she’s not gonna stay here.” I said and whistled for the large dog, who came back and sat at my feet obediently, allowing me to attach the leash to her collar, which wasn’t easy as it was hidden under her large mane. Twenty minutes later, everyone was all packed, and ready to go. We were back at the base soon after, as my family was going up to Syracuse with the rest of us. Locke and his agents, had agreed to drive my families belongings up. You know I gotta hand it to Locke, while he could be a little disagreeable due to the nasty little clause, that bound him to silence anyone who openly spoke of the supernatural, he was a pretty stand up guy.

When we finally landed back home, Peretas went crazy in sniffing out the new environment. Marlyn wasn’t too happy in having to go into MHI’s version of witness protection, and neither was Jillian. That was until they saw the interior of the compound. With twenty of us on the team, it wouldn’t be too hard to take jobs, and guard my family. Earl had given them the okay to go where they wanted to in Syracuse, as long as no less than five members of our team went with the at all times. As for me, It was another long day. Two werewolf attacks in two days, and I was exhausted physically and mentally, and just like night when I went to bed I was asleep the second my head hit the pillow.

Agent Locke and his agents arrived the next day with my families belongings. The feds had also made a stop in Fulton to both explain the situation in its entirety to Matt’s Family, and to bring them up to the compound with whatever they could fit into one of the SUVs. Matt’s family would have to be the one percent exception to everyone else who lives in Fulton. Meaning that the Reese’s are by no means deadbeat food stampers, or Pabst Blue Ribbon swilling rednecks, and they are sure as hell not raging, violent alcoholics. Matt’s mom Emily was a teacher at my old high school. I said that in past tense, due to her retiring in our sophmore year of college. She had a tough job though, as most of the students in that school were lazy racist pieces of shit, who thought they were above everyone else. Then again, Mrs. Reese wasn’t above giving the most outspoken kids a good kick in the ass. Matt’s father Matthew Sr. works for the New York State Sheriffs. He’s the reason his son loves guns so much, and also like father, like son, Matthew is a designated marksman when the situation calls for it. Matt is also the oldest of four other siblings. He had a younger brother named Dean who was eighteen, and two sisters. Katelyn who was sixteen, and Abbigail who prefers to be called Abby who was two years younger than Katelyn. 

Matthew Sr looked around the compound warily, as if he was expecting something to jump out, or for someone to start shooting -his hand was on his hip, lightly gripping a Glock-19 much like mine-. Several minutes later, seemingly satisfied that nothing and nobody was going to open fire on him and his family, he relaxed his grip on his sidearm. After several hours of explaining about what MHI does, Sr seemed satisfied. Matt’s younger brother Dean was unlike Sr, much more excited at what his older brother and his closest friend now did for a living. Matt was more than happy to allow Dean to test out his FAL. Dean was in love with the rifle at the first shot. Emily did not want Katelyn or Abby anywhere near our compound’s armory, or shooting range, and Matt being the oldest sibling in his family was in agreement with his mother and father. 

Tony though, he practically begged me to let him try out some of the weapons we had in reserve. Oh Marlyn was adamantly against it, but after reminding her that there was a large pack of real PO’d werewolves after us, she relented as she saw how good an idea it would be having someone else in the family that knew how to handle a firearm.

“Alright we’re gonna start out off with some easy ones, work our way up from there.” I’d laid out several rifles in front of him. The M1 Grand, The M25 sniper rifle,which is basically an M14 on steroids, and a standard FN FAL. “Most important things about firing your weapon. One take three deep breaths, and when you exhale for the third time that’s when you fire. Two don’t think about pulling the trigger, just focus on that third breath.” Now I don’t know wether or not dad hat taken Tony shooting before, but he was a crack shot with a rifle. And I mean a crack shot. He hit a target dead center mass at 500 yards with every rifle he tried, and I just knew that I was looking at a future Hunter wether his parents liked it or not.

Now I hate spiders. I don’t just mean they give me a case of the shivers, no I mean no matter the size and shape of the spider is enough to make me leave whatever room I’m in. But the only person on the team who knew that was Matt, so when Our team got called out take care of something in Portland Maine, the last thing I ever expected to go after was a giant arachnie.

When we got the call, I was in the compounds armory putting together several different tactical vests and loadouts together. I had made a new purchase at Intimidator a few days before the job involving the giant arachne. That purchase being and Uzi 9mm that I had converted to fire .45 ACP with some help from dad and Mr. Reese, and had adapted it to sport a silencer. The armory also doubled as a workshop, so the team had everything we needed to assemble, fix, and modify our weapons. The sidearm to go along with my silenced Uzi since Brian still didn’t have any 1911’s in stock, was still going to be my full sized Sig. So two dozen pistol mags went into the tac vest I had designated via the large letters I’d placed on the duct tape on the top of the tac vest, as my CQC vest, as well as another two dozen mags for my new Uzi. I also placed 10 magazines into the remaining slots on the vest for my Saiga.

I’d also brought out my AR-10 from its case in my grandpa’s old 1968 Mustang. Don’t get me wrong, while I loved my Galil, I’d had this rifle longer and damned if I didn’t use it now that I was a monster hunter. I placed a dozen full silver .308 mags into the vest, two dozen more pistol mags for my Sig, and slotted in two dozen loose shells for my twin 1887’s. One last thing left to do, and that was placing a strip of silver duct tape at the top of the vest, with the abreviation ‘MKSMN’ meaning ‘marksman’.

“New equipment?” I jumped in surprise when Kai Leng’s voice came from behind me. 

“Oh Jesus Christ!”

“No, my name is Kai.” She replied, a joking smirk on her face.

“Oh very funny.” I sighed, checking my pulse which was going through the roof at that moment. “Don’t sneak up on a guy like that.”

“I didn’t mean to frighten you.” Kai said, before her eyes ran over all of my hardware. “Quite impressive, but I thought that the Uzi mangled forty five ammo.” 

“Normally yeah, the Uzi would mangle forty five ammo something nasty. But thanks to my dad and Mr. Reese, that’s not a problem anymore.” I replied, feeling really proud of the work the three of us had done on my new Uzi.

“That’s something I’d like to see.” She said, tracing her fingers along the silencer. 

I shook my head to clear it of the racy thoughts that were swirling about in my mind, before my brain had processed what she said. “Wanna test her out?”

“Thought you’d never ask.” She replied, and I grabbed a handful of magazines before the two of us made our way to the range. 

Dan and Anthony along with dad, Mr, Reese, and John were testing out various rifles when we entered the range. Well that is to say, Alex’s older brother John was firing his H&K 417 at a target downrange. John was Alex’s older brother, and was a U.S. Army Ranger for about a decade. He was a Sergeant, and well on his way to Lieutenant before he resigned to join up with MHI. Dad and Mr. Reese were observing their sons accuracy. Tony had fallen in love with the FAL that he’d fired when I had instructed -if you could even call it that- him how to shoot. Dean however, preferred the M16. Not a bad choice really. It was a real nice reliable rifle for all occasions. 

“Testing out that Uzi?” Dad asked, when he saw Kai with my new subgun in her hands.

“I am. I’m curious to see how it fires.” She replied. 

“Well the range is hot, have at it.”

“Kai walked up to one of the firing blocks that wasn’t occupied. She hit the red button on the side of the block, and a metal target popped up on the range. “Let’s see what this thing can do.” She said as I handed her one of the magazines I’d brought with me. She loaded it in, racked the handle back to chamber the first round, and let loose with the subgun as she fired in three and four round bursts until the magazine was empty. Oh yeah, I probably should have mentioned that despite Kai firing in bursts, I had converted the Uzi to fire on full auto.

“James,” She said, as she ejected the spent mag. “I want one of these.”

“What is that?” John asked, he’d made his way over to us, the safety on his 417 flicked on. “Uzi on full auto? You know the Uzi mangles forty five ammo on full auto.”

Kai and I looked at one another, then at my new Uzi, before she handed the weapon to John. “Try it for yourself.”

“Oh this is gonna be good.” John said, taking the Uzi from Kai after I handed him of of the three magazines I had. “Alright, goin’ hot!” It only took a few seconds to empty the magazine, but that was all it took for John to fall in love with my Uzi. “Okay, put this on my Christmas list. I want one.”

“Fires good?” Mr. Reese asked. There was a satisfied smile on his face, due to the appreciation of our hard work.

“Bet your ass it fires good Sir.” John replied.

“Mind if I try it out James?” Tony asked, setting down the FAL. The magazine he was unloading was currently sitting next to the rifle now spent.

It was around then, Alex’s father Lucas walked into the armory. I thought that with that hardened expression of his, that he would have been a Hunter for a longer period of time. Turns out I was wrong. He’d only been with MHI for only a few years. Alex was the senior Hunter in his family, and had been a Hunter for close to a year before the rest of his family became introduced to the supernatural via a zombie outbreak in downtown Syracuse. Lucas, John and Thom had assisted MHI in containing and ending the outbreak, and had been with the company ever since. Now from the look on his face, I could tell we had another job. “James, find Matt and Richard, and get your gear together.”

“Do we have another job Sir?” I asked, taking back my Uzi from John.

“We have another job.” Lucas replied. “Find them, and get your gear together.”

I hadn’t known that our compound had a gym, as I’d only been a part of the team for two, no wait make that three days, but we did and that was where I found Matt and Rocky after depositing my Uzi back in the armory. I watched as Matt and Rocky exchanged in the large boxing/wrestling ring in the center of the gym. I gave an appreciative whistle, as Matt hooked his legs around Rockie’s head, and sent him ass over teakettle with a hurricanrana. 

“I told you I could do that!” Matt yelled, bouncing on the balls of his feet waiting for Rocky to get back to his feet. “Told you I watched too much professional wrestling as a kid!”

“Your friend is quite the show off.” Kai Leng said as she walked up and stood next to me.

“Well he did just say he watched too much pro wrestling as a kid.” I replied with a friendly smile, as Matt and Rocky launched into another exchange.

“As did I.” She said opening a water bottle. “I was a fan of the late Eddie Guerrero.” I couldn’t tell weather or not it was heavy coincidence -or that I hadn’t noticed earlier- that Kai was wearing an old Eddie Guerrero t-shirt with the faded white words I’m Your Papi printed along the front.

“Yeah, I really miss him. Don’t tell anyone else this, but I actually cried on the Monday Night Raw episode that announced Eddie’s death. I mean cried like a little baby.” I replied, as Rocky swept Matt’s feet out from under him, sending him crashing down to the mat back first.

“So did I.” She said, her eyes slightly downcast. I felt a surge of guilt shoot through me. I couldn’t really explain it at the time, but I didn’t like seeing her upset. But a few moments later, her expression became neutral, and almost questioning. “What about you? Your favorite wrestler would be?” 

“Um it switched.” I replied. “It was Sean Michaels, up until he had to retire after losing to the Undertaker for the second time. Now it’s The Phenomenal AJ Styles.”

“Ah a good choice.” Kai smiled, as Rocky caught Matt, and deposited my friend back first emulating The Rock’s signature move the Rock Bottom.

“Thank you.” I replied. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go play reff.” I ran towards the ring, sliding into the ring beneath the bottom rope. I hit the mat with my right palm three times as Rocky pinned Matt. There was a scattering of applause, that came from the few of my team that had entered the gym, as I raised Rockie’s hand before helping Matt to his feet.

“Alright guys,” I began, as Matt and Rocky shook hands. “Grab your gear. Mr. Morrison says we have a job.”

“Coolness, it’s game time.” Matt said, before taking hold of the top rope, pulling it back and vaulting over the rope, and onto the floor.

“Where at?” Rock asked, mirroring Matt’s movements with vaulting over the top rope onto the floor.

“He didn’t say. Just to get our gear together.” I said, and waited until I thought the room was clear, before grabbing the top rope, and shaking it in a manner similar to the Ultimate Warrior. At least I thought that the room was clear, up until I heard a beautiful sounding laugh. My stomach jolted in surprise, and I looked up to see that Kai was still standing where she was when we had our small conversation moments before. “You saw that?”

She smiled, and nodded. “I did, but we should get to the armory. Lucas isn’t the sort of person you want to keep waiting.” 

The two of us quickly made our way back to the armory, Kai having promised that she wouldn’t tell anyone about my emulation of the Warrior.When we got there, Matt Rocky, Lucas and John weren’t the only ones assembling their gear. The Fulani brothers Ardeth and Farid were already set and ready to go. Our demo guy who was also named James, nicknamed ‘Fireball’ by Connor, was loading a large drum into his AA12. Connor who I had mentioned, was loading a large 200 round ammo box into his large M60, before retrieving a large Browning .30 caliber from a weapon bench on the far side of the armory.

“Ooookay, any particular reason you’re gonna rock and roll with that Ma Duce?” James asked.

“That’s simple,” Lucas began, loading his M16. From what Alex said, he had that rifle all the way through his own career as a Ranger. “I told him to bring it, we might need it.”

“Need it for what exactly dad?” John asked reloading his 417. “You never said where we’re going or what we’re hunting.”

“Portland Maine.” Lucas replied, checking his 1911. “We’re going after an arachnie. For you three rookies, that’s a big giant spider.”

“Oh hell no.” I said dropping my Uzi mag. “I don’t do spiders of any size.”

“Afraid of spiders Jimmi?” John asked, picking up my dropped mag. 

“Terrified.” I replied, as a shudder went up my spine.

“You know Dimitri has a saying for conquering your fears.” John said. “My Russian isn’t too good, but I think the translation is ‘the best way to conquer your fears, is to kill it’.”

“So what you’re saying is … kill the shit out of the giant fucking spider?”

“And we have a winner.” John replied, handing me back my Uzi mag.

“Alright fine.” I sighed in resignation, loading the magazine into my new subgun. “We need anything else? Anything special?”

“Explosives, and incendiaries.” James replied, hefting up two large duffel bags. “Don’t worry Hendrix, I’ve got us all covered.”

“Well it’s not gonna kill itself.” I said, pulling my CQC tac vest over my armor, and making sure all my gear was secure. I didn’t know that my hands were shaking, until Kai’s right hand rested on top of my left.

“I know how you feel,” She began softly. “I’m afraid of lyndwyrms. Which is ironically how I got my start. That particular lyndwyrm injured me pretty bad. That was until I destroyed the cave it was dwelling in. Ironically, it was this very team that was sent after the wyrm in the first place.”

“But how did you…?” I began, and my sentence trailed off.

“Egypt several years ago. We went after another lyndwyrm in Cairo, which was almost the same size as the pyramids.” She explained.

“Jesus…”

She nodded and continued. “We had brought our Little Bird with us, and before Farid or Ardeth could, I got into the cockpit. I know how to fly a helicopter before you ask. I flew the Little Bird straight towards the lyndwyrm, and fired several missiles into its open mouth.”

My mouth must have fallen open, because she closed it a second later. “Damn you are a badass woman.”

She laughed that beautiful laugh again, before lightly patting my cheek with her slender fingers. “Were you just flirting with me?” She asked whispering that in my ear, so nobody else could hear.

“Just a little.” I admitted. I couldn’t help it, I’ve said it before she’s highly attractive. She laughed once again, and lightly tapped my cheek with her fingers again, but quickly retracted her hand when loud footsteps reached our ears.

Thom ran into the armory, and for a guy in as good of shape as he was, looked slightly winded. Like he had just heard we were going out on a job. “You guys going out without me?”

“Just an arachne Thom.” John said. “Nothing to worry about.”

“You guys might need me though.” Thom countered, weak counter though it was.

John sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You know the deal Thom. Besides we can handle this, its just a spider.”

I had no idea what this ‘deal’ was at that point, and apparently Thom didn’t like whatever it was, but had to go along with whatever it was. “Alright,” He said in a resigned tone. “See you guys when you get back. Oh, wait hold up! I got something for the rookies.” 

Thom dug into his pocket, and dug out three patches that were embroidered with a blazing skull. “Team patches,” Thom explained. “Now you guys are official members of the team.” After slapping the blazing skull onto my armor, the 9 of us made our way to the team’s plane. I was still wondering what ‘deal’ was made where Thom couldn’t go out on hunts with us.

Don’t worry though, that’ll be explained later.

MHI had bought a small private airstrip just outside of Portland. I learned later that the company had small airstrips like this all over the country. One of the hangars on this particular airstrip housed a small convoy of SUVs, which is where we headed after our plane touched down, and Ardeth killed the engines. Three large SUVs rolled out of the airstrip. Lucas, Ardeth, Farid, and Rocky were in the lead vehicle. John, Kai, Matt, and myself were in the second. That left James and Connor with all our gear and ammo bringing up the rear. 

“Where is this thing calling home anyways?” I asked, feeling once again incredibly nervous.

“Best guess is some sort of cave,” John said. “Arachnie’s prefer the dark and the cold, so probably a cave close to the water.”

“Perfect. Cold, dark,and spiders.” I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Remind me why I agreed to this one again?”

“That’s because you don’t know what an arachnie goes for.” John laughed, as we passed through the city of Portland.

“I hate myself, but I’ll bite.” I groaned. “What do they go for?”

“Arachnie offspring go for about eighty grand. And there’ll always be offspring when you go after one of these things. Adult arachnie’s are worth about two hundred grand.”

“I think I just got over my fear of spiders.” I replied, which made everyone in the SUV laugh including me. 10 minutes later, the team arrived at the scene of the crime. The area was cordoned off with police tape, and there were about a dozen squad cars surrounding the area. 

The site was on the northern end of the city, where a small trail leads up to the side of a real steep cliff that overlooks the port and the Atlantic beyond that. It’s actually a real nice sight for a dating couple. And the unfortunate part was that a dating couple and their friends went spelunking on that cliffside. One of them had found the cave a few days before, and had persuaded everyone else to go and explore the cave. Well the poor bastards got more than they bargained for when they stumbled across the arachnie nest. The large spiders had attacked the group, dragging several of them deeper into their nest. Only one person had reached the entrance of the cave, and climbed back up the side of the cliff.

“This is gonna suck.” Rocky said, as he looked over the side of the cliff.

“Don’t like heights?” Matt asked, as James produced ropes, anchors and D-links from one of the duffel bags he’d brought. Rocky shook his head in response, as he backed away from the cliffside. 

“Alright,” Lucas began, once all ropes and D-links were secured. “I’ll go down first with Connor, John, and James.” He meant our demo guy, who was the more experienced Hunter. “Kai. You, James, Matt, and Richard come down after us. Understand?”

“Yes sir.” We all said at the same time.

“Alright then. Let’s go hunting.”


	7. Chapter 7

Why the people who went spelunking in this cave thought it was a good idea to go to this cave I will never know. The whole damn place was covered in spiderwebs, and each individual strand of every web was at least a foot wide. I had to surpress both a shudder, and the urges to vomit, piss, and shit myself at the same damn time. I did say I hated spiders didn’t I?

“Someone’s been through here already,” Lucas said, crouching down examining the floor of the cave. “And I don’t mean the civi’s that came through here that got dragged off, no another Hunter’s been through here. Judging by the five-five-six shells all around, they’re probably about ten minutes ahead of us.” There was a burst of echoed gunfire, that came from deeper into the cave. “Better make that three minutes ahead.”

“Well whoever they are, let’s not keep them waiting.” John said.

“More importantly, this guy is stealing our bounty.” Matt scoffed.

“Right then. Connor, stay here and get that thirty cal setup.” Lucas began. “Miss Leng, you take point.”

Our formation as we moved towards the sound of gunfire was Kai, James, myself, John, Lucas, Matt, and Rocky brought up the rear. Despite the fact the things were dead, a huge shiver ran up my spine every time one of the dead arachnie legs brushed against one of mine. 

I felt my blood chill when I chanced a glance down. The damn thing was the size of a Volkswaggon. An eight legged, eight eyed, incredibly hairy Volkswaggon. Only good thing about it that I found, was that the arachnie was riddled with bullet holes. Good. Only good spider is a dead spider. I thought to myself, as we passed by dozens more arachnie corpses. Whoever had done this was either a team, or a serious pro. My hopes were on team.

Here’s a pro tip for you: If you’re hoping for one thing to happen over another, the thing you were hoping to happen won’t nine times out of ten. So when I was hoping for another team over a serious pro, guess what I got? If you guessed serious pro, you win the prize. Of course, sometimes not getting what you wished for can also be a good thing. I don’t want to say this guy was slaughtering these damn spiders, but for lack of a better term, that was exactly what this person was doing.

Whoever this person was, they were armored like a Call of Duty juggernaut. There was a ski mask covering their face, only leaving the eyes exposed, so on top of that and the armor I couldn’t tell if this person was male or female. But the thing that struck me as odd. Yeah, more odd than one person blasting away at a nest of arachnie’s armed with just a FAMAS assault rifle. More odd than the large tac vest that was over stuffed with magazines for said rifle. Yeah, more odd than any of those things. The oddest thing I noticed on this person, was the SAS patch on the right sleeve of their heavy armor. Yeah the oddest thing about whoever this person was, was that they were British. Before you ask, no no I don’t hate the British, I was just surprised that a British Hunter was here.

Didn’t get more time to process that thought, because right after that Lucas yelled “OPEN FIRE!” Nobody needed telling twice. Seven Hunters all opened up on the Volkswaggon sized spiders. Several spiders burst into flames, to which I chalked up to James’ AA12. I’d forgotten that he always loaded that assault shotgun with incendiary shells. 

The arachnies let out this horrible unearthly screech as a wall of silver slammed into them. Weird thing is, they weren’t trying to attack us. To me it looked like they were trying to get away. Almost like they were…

“They’re trying to get to their queen!” Lucas roared over the incredibly loud sound of the overlapping gunfire. And the fact that we were in a cave where the sound was amplified a hundredfold didn’t help. “Reload, and get after them now!”

I fished a magazine out of my tac vest, and slammed it home. The charging handle snapped forward, and I was once again ready to rock and roll. Odd thing is, while I was terrified of spiders, I felt braver now that it was time for some sort of action. I guess what John had said about Dimitri’s way of facing your fears really was correct. 

“You want point Jimmi?” Lucas asked the second the charging bolt on my Uzi snapped forward.

“Yeah, as a matter of fact hell yeah.” I said transitioning to my Saiga. I’d made sure to load incendiary shells into it before we rapelled down the side of the cliff. I was surprised with myself, because if I haven’t said it before, I was terrified of spiders. But then again, if you’re afraid of something, you tend to forget your fear when you’re holding an automatic Russian shotgun loaded with incendiary shells.

So if you’re wondering what barbequed giant-ass spider smells like. If you’ve ever set your hair on fire for one reason or another, take that smell, then combine it with the stench of an open sewer pipe. Yeah, un-fucking-plesant. Matter of fact, vomit inducing un-fucking-plesent. Hell the only thing that kept me from losing what little I’d eaten that day, was that every time I immolated one of those arachnies, I saw dollar signs pop up. Yeah the thought of the large payout this job would yield, prevented me from vomiting. 

Oh, there’s another tip for you: If you ever think that you’re about to vomit on a job like this, think of the payout. It worked on this job, and on multiple other jobs I’d have after this. But we’ll get to that later.

“Oh fuck me they smell horrid,” Matt groaned, right before tasting his breakfast for the second time.

“Bet that tasted worse than these things smell,” Rocky scoffed, as I fished in my tac-vest for another incendiary mag. We’d pushed the arachnies back into their nest, which was covered wall to wall and floor to ceiling in foot-wide spiderwebs.

“This is weird,” Lucas said inspecting the arachnie nest. “Where the hell’re all the missing people?”

“More than that,” The British Hunter began, and the second surprise of the day was that I had expecting a British accent. What I and everyone else heard was a French accent. What the hell was a French guy doing in the British SAS? And on top of that why was a Frenchie with a British Hunting company? My brain hurt from all the questions I was asking myself. “Where in the hell the queen?”

After lightly whacking my head with my palm, in order to clear it of all the confusing questions, I noticed that both Lucas and the French/Brittish Hunter had a point. There was no trace of either the arachnie queen, or the missing people. Something wasn’t adding up here.

“So no victims,” I said, ticking off things on my fingers. “No queen, and no leeds. What the hell is going on? And what the hell are we missing?”

“I think I have a lead,” Kai said, her brow creased like she was doubting what she was about to say. “Although it’s a long shot. A very long shot.”

“Go on, tell us Kai.” Lucas said.

“There’s another type of supernatural spider,” She began, tapping the fingers of her right hand along her M249 Para. “But they’re very rare, almost extinct.”

“What are they?” John asked.

“They’re called Jouroguomo,” Kai continued. “They’re a Japanese legend. They can take the form of an attractive Japanese woman to lure their prey into their layer. When they devour their victims, they don’t leave anything save a puddle of flesh.”

“And these things can command arachnies?” Matt asked, before retching from the smell of the burning spiders.

“Yes, which is one of the reasons they’ve been hunted to near extinction.” Kai replied.

“Okay,” I began. “If they can control other spider monsters, pretty much leave no trace of their victims, and then there’s the fact they can transform into an attractive woman…” And that’s when everything hit me. The woman who had explained everything about the situation was an attractive Asian woman that nobody had given a second thought to. At least up until right now, plus she seemed slightly familiar to me. But I couldn’t for the life of me put my finger on it. “Oh fuck me. The woman who told us everything. She was Asian, high probability she was Japanese. And if my little hair-brained theory is right, she’s the Jouroguomo.”

There was a collective look between the team including the French/British Hunter, in which we all registered one thing: Oh. Shit. The seven of us hauled ass past the burning spider corpses towards the cave’s entrance. Lucas had barked over the com line for conner to pack up the Deuce lightning quick, James had stayed behind, because he was planting a large explosive charge in the Jouroguomo/arachnie nest. I had no idea how we got up the cliffside so fast, but when we got to the bottom of the hill where the police had blocked off the area, Matt, Rocky, and myself all ended up vomiting.

I hate being right sometimes. The Japanese woman who was with the cops, had indeed turned out to be this Jouroguomo that Kai had mentioned. The cops that were with her … Well they were nothing but fleshy puddles. You want an example? Watch the episode of Supernatural that involves a shapeshifter. You see, in that series whenever a shapeshifter takes on the form of another person, they leave behind a fleshy puddle of the person they had previously been. And that is exactly what was left of the officers. On top of that, one of the cruisers were missing.

“Oh goddamnit, this is gonna be a very long day.” I groaned as I came up from depositing my breakfast on the asphalt.


	8. Chapter 8

I was right in saying that this was gonna be a long day, but we had lucked out with several things. The first being that the cruiser that the Jouroguomo had stolen after liquifying the officers who were on site was lo-jacked, meaning that it could be tracked in live time. The second thing we lucked out with, was that the Portland P.D. chief knew who we were and why we were here, so he had no qualms about us just barging into his precinct armed for war. Because that’s exactly what we did. Lucas notified Locke and the MCB about the situation, and the acting director had promised to find out who this particular Jouroguomo was, and who or what she was after. Locke also said that when he found her, that we would be the first call he made. 

With no arachnie queen to kill, our job in Portland was finished. We met back up with James at the small airstrip just outside the city. He reeked of burnt spider, but more strongly of napalm. I hoped the plane had airsick bags, because I had a feeling that Matt was going to end up puking on the flight back. I hate being right sometimes.

Another thing about me that I don’t like, is take off. I have no qualms about flying once the plane is in the air, but when the plane is trying to gain altitude, I’m praying to God that we don’t crash. That and I’m gripping the armrests on my seat with enough force to bend a steel beam 90 degrees. What? I’m in a metal tube thousands of feet in the air. Gravity works I’ve seen evidence of it my entire life. If something happens, we’re fucked.

When we finally landed back at the compound, there was no time to rest. Thom had met us at the airstrip, and from the look on his face, something big had to be going down. “Don’t put your weapons away yet guys. We got another call about something nasty going down at OCC.”

“Why isn’t Patrick handling this?” Lucas asked, his eyes narrowed as he asked his youngest son that question.

“There was another call about an hour ago up at SU.” Thom replied shuddering. “Demons coming out of the goddamn computers again.”

“Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean ‘again’?” I asked incredulously. “Demons have come out of computers up at SU before!?”

“Not SU specifically,” Thom replied. “Actually it’s the first time that’s happened up there.”

“Any idea what it is?” John asked, as we quickly made our way to the garage and the team’s SUV’s.

“My guess is a troll,” Thom replied. “We got the call not ten seconds before you guys landed. A group of construction workers were renovating one of the buildings, two of them hadn’t been heard from for a few hours, so they send the foreman. An hour later, he hasn’t reported in either.”

“What about the cops?” Connor asked, before going to deposit the Deuce in the armory.

“They sent in two officers, and if you can guess what happened to them, you win the grand prize.”

“I thought trolls lived under bridges?” Rocky asked, as everyone made their way to the armory to stock back up on ammo.

“Well that’s the ironic part about this,” Thom began with a dry cuckle. “The building being renovated connects the Gordon Center to the music hall. That connection is a bridge overlooking a river.”

“Well looks like you were right Jimmy,” Rocky said, trying to get a spiderweb out of his hair. “This is gonna be a long day.”

“I really hate being right sometimes.” I groaned, refilling my tac-vest with Uzi mags. “Do we need anything special like we did with the spiders?”

“Restock on your incendiary shells. We’re gonna need ‘em.” Lucas said in that same barking tone he tended to use whenever a situation got serious.

“Flamethrower boss?” James asked. And I noticed with a slight feeling of foreboding, that there was a hopeful glint in his eyes.

“Bring it, but that means you’re gonna insert at the river. I don’t want that thing used indoors. Way too dangerous in close quarters.” 

“Are you gonna join us?” I asked Thom, restocking on incendiary shells for my Saiga. “From the sounds of it, we could use the help.”

A rueful half-smile crossed Thom’s face as he shook his head. “I can’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to go, but somebody’s gotta stay here and watch after you and your buddy’s families. Don’t worry, there’ll be plenty more opportunities for me to shoot some uglies.”

“We’ll see you when we get back little brother.” John said, cycling the action of his Mossberg action hero-style.

From where our compound is located, Onondaga Community College is about a 5 minute drive away. The way Lucas drives, it seemed more like a 2 minute drive. James, Rocky, Connor, and Kai were going to insert from the river. Lucas, Matt, and the Frenchie who I’ll get to later would insert from the musical hall, while John and myself would go in from the Gordon Student Center.

“I hate trolls,” John began, as we swept slowly through the lower floors of the student center. “Foul smelling, real powerful, and can turn nasty when somebody makes a crack about goats.”

“You made a goat joke when you went after a trolls nest didn’t you?” I scoffed lightly, as we searched a rather large office. We were moving with the speed of a glacier so we didn’t miss anything, and did not get surprised in case we ran across our target/targets.

John chuckled peeking around a corner with his Mossberg leveled. The entire campus had been evacuated, the official story was that somebody had planted a bomb somewhere on campus. Gotta love the stuff the MCB can come up with. “Yeah, it was one of the first jobs I ever went on with MHI. We found where their nest was, a fight breaks out, one of the trolls charge at me. Well you saw how fast Alex moved when he went toe to toe with that vampire in Fulton right?”

“Yeah.” I replied, as we exited the large office. “He kicked that things ass, right before Matt, Rock, and myself ended it.”

“Well that’s a hybrid for you,” John replied, as we continued down the hall. “Faster and stronger than anything you’ve ever seen, or anything you’re ever going to see in your career as a Hunter. Anyways, I get into a fist fight with this thing, and he’s getting angrier and angrier because he can’t hit me. All the while, I’m moving and striking like Muhamad Ali. Anyways the thing gets so pissed off, and I come out with: ‘oh sorry, that get your goat’? Ohhhh damn did that ever piss him off.”

I was using a wall for support by the end of John’s story. My ribs hurt I was laughing so hard, and I had to remind myself that we had a job to do. “Well I’m no hybrid, so I think I’ll leave the smart remarks to you and your dad on this job.”

“You’re alright Jimmi. Just remember to watch your corners, and above all else, even above not making any goat jokes. Don’t use your katana. Trust me, from experience you don’t want to cut an ar or leg off a troll.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said before we came up from the basement of the student center. The bridge that connected the Gordon building with the music hall was on the student center’s first floor. We only cleared the lower floors, because we had to make sure the trolls weren’t nesting there. “So can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.” John replied, then added. “I meant ask, not fire your weapon.”

“I knew what you meant. But I wanted to know what the ‘deal’ was that prevented Thom from going hunting with us. I mean he was with us when we went to Fort Bragg, so why couldn’t he come with us when we went after the arachnies, and why can’t he be with us now?”

“It’s… A long story,” John replied. “The short version is that Thom and Kai used to date for a time before you guys joined the team. The recently broke things off, for some reason really known only between the two of them. But unless there’s a real big problem like say a big-ass zombie outbreak, the two of them don’t go on the same jobs together.”

“And I’m guessing Thom took the break-up kinda hard?” I asked.

“He took it better than I thought, but yeah he took it hard.”

I couldn’t help it, I gave a small snort of laughter, and instead of saying ‘that’s what she said’ I went with: “Phrasing.”

John laughed, and lightly shoved my left shoulder. I couldn’t help it, I laughed too. But when it stopped, it was back to business. Back to doing what we came here to do.

“Alright, we move through the cafeteria, and into the bridge. And remember what I said earlier.”

“Check corners,” I began. “No smack talk, and no katana.”

John nodded once. “You ready?”

“Yeah.”

“You look ready.” John replied, looking more like the soldier he used to be. “Alright let’s move.”

The two of us moved through the cafeteria, using a variation of the back-to-back method. John took the lead, while I covered his back. Halfway across the room we switched, I was taking point while John covered my back. We really weren’t expecting the trolls to be in here of all places, but better to be safe rather than troll food. The two of us reached the other end of the cafeteria in a little over a minute, and from there it was a straight shot to the bridge that connected the two buildings.

_“Everyone check in.”_ Lucas spoke over the com line.

“John here. Jimmi’s with me. Studen’t center’s clear, no tangos spotted.” John replied.

_“Fireball checking in.”_ James reported over the com line. _“Couple of bones down here, but nothing that looks human. Deer, fox, that sort of stuff. Might be their dumping ground.”_

_“We think we might have found where their laying their heads.”_ Lucas said over the line. _“John, Jimmi, Richard, converge on our position in the auditorium. James, Kai, Connor, stay along the banks of the river below. If things go bad we’ll drive them to you.”_

_“Copy.”_

“Copy dad, alright let’s move Jimmi.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. We moved across the new extention that connected the student center to the music hall and auditorium as quick as we could. Matt Lucas and the French Hunter were waiting for us on the other side of the doors that led to the bridge. Two minutes later, Rocky joined us from the opposite end of the hallway, looking pretty winded. Then again, he had just run up a pretty steep embankment with about 50 pounds worth of gear on. He made pretty good time for all the gear he had on, and how steep the terrain was.

“Spiders, trolls, could today get any crazier?” He panted, doubling over.

The French Hunter straightened Rocky up after a few seconds. “You constrict your airway when you’re bent over like that. Stand up straight, and more air will go into your lungs.”

“And we’re going up against trolls,” John said. “You have no idea how crazy it’s about to get.”

“Oh goddamnit,” Rocky groaned. “I’m gonna need a drink before today is over.”

“We’ll stop at the liquor store when this job is over.” Lucas replied. “God knows I could use a drink as well.”

“Well job first, booze second.” John began. “Where are they resting their heads dad?”

“This way.” Lucas replied, and led us into the auditorium. We moved down past the rows of chairs, and took a left. That led us into another hallway, and we went down a set of stairs from there. And oh my god, the smell that hit us when we reached the bottom of the stepps. It was worse that the burning arachnies in the cave. Yeah I’d sooner take the burning spiders than whatever the hell these trolls smelled like.

“Matt, if you’re gonna vomit hold it in.” I said.

“I don’t think I have anything left to throw up.” Matt groaned, shaking his head. My guess was to hold down his stomach contents from coming back up. “Oh god how do you guys do this?”

“You get used to it.” John replied, waving a hand in front of his nose. “My guess is that they’re right through those doors. Let me handle it, but get your guns up.”

The thought that John wasn’t going to make a goat crack about goats crossed my mind, but was wiped from it the second the Eldest Morrison child knocked on the double doors in front of us. “Hello, my friends and I are representing the Huntsman Against Goat Abuse Foundation. Do you have a moment to talk?”

You know that scene from _The Mummy Returns_ where Brendan Frasier’s character says ‘these guys don’t use doors’? And then 6 mummified warriors burst through the concrete surrounding the door? Yeah, same thing happened in the split-second after John made his goat crack. Apparently trolls don’t use doors either. The damn things came through the friggin’ walls, and oh damn they were pissed off.

“NOT MAKE BILLY GOAT JOKE!” One troll roared at John.

“Oh I’m sorry,” John replied in a snarky tone. “Did you want us to goat-away?”

I’m not sure if I groaned internally or let it out, but the next thing I became aware of was that John had cocked back his right fist, and put his fist into the troll’s abdomen. When he retracted it, there was a firing pin to a grenade hanging from his thumb. I think the troll knew what John had done, a split-second before the presurized napalm burned the troll from the inside out.

Okay pro tip time once again: If a hybrid who has the last name of Morrison ever A, decides to smack talk you, accept it. And B, if you ever get into a fist fight with said Morrison hybrid, you’re probably going to die, and if you don’t, you will get your ass utterly handed to you.

To me, it really didn’t seem that all of us were needed. Lucas and John beat the snot out of the trolls in a matter of seconds with their bare hands. Sure the two had been former soldiers, but the added fact that they were vampire/werewolf hybrids was the key advantage in this situation. What they did to those trolls was over in a matter of seconds, they moved so fast I could barely register what the two had done, but when it was over Lucas and John were standing over five mangled and twisted trolls.

“Are they dead?” I asked completely stunned. Yeah sure I had seen Alex in action against a vampire, and he had made fighting those things incredibly easy when in reality, if anyone else other than another vampire had attempted that, there wouldn’t be much of anything left of them. But still seeing (if only barely) what father and eldest son had just accomplished with just their bare hands, made me wonder once again why all of us were needed, if those two were able to twist these things into supernatural pretzels. I mean hell, the rest of us hadn’t even gotten a shot off.

“Huh, let’s check.” John kicked one of the twisted trolls in the head, and its head snapped to the right with a nasty cracking sound. “Nah, it’s neck might be snapped, but it’ll come back from that.”

“So twisting these things into pretzels, and breaking one of their necks wasn’t enough?” Matt asked, somewhere between shock and laughter. “What’s it take to kill one of these sons of bitches.”

“I think that’s why we brought the incendiary shells and grenades.” Rocky replied in the same half-shocked half-laughing tone that Matt spoke in. “But why waste the shells, we can use the grenades and make a makeshift funeral pyre. But we shouldn’t do it in here, we’ll set the whole building on fire.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” Lucas said. “We’ve got a flamethrower, so why not use it?”

John and Lucas dragged the trolls outside, Lucas called for Kai, Connor and James to join us, and by the time that the two Morrisons had tossed the last troll into a large pile. James was more than happy to use the flamethrower we had brought, and now I better understand that line from _Apocalypse Now_. I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

“Notify the MCB,” Lucas said, after the flamethrower ran out of juice. “Time to pack up, hit the liquor store and RTB. Our job’s done here.”

Half an hour and several full bottles of various alcohols later (oh should have mentioned that we had taken off our armor and weapons before entering the liquor store), we arrived back at the compound. 

The Frenchman who we had encountered in the arachnie nest was an attractive looking man (yes I admit that as a straight man that this guy was attractive) if I had to guess in his late 20’s or very early 30’s. His name was Rennie Benoit, his facial features despite his apparent age were youthful. Rennie’s hair was a dark brown, but he had it cut to SAS military standards. Rennie had been former SAS. Born in Paris, but raised in London by his father. He and his unit were attacked by a powerful vampire while running a search and rescue op. Their asses had been saved by the British Hunter organizations aptly named the Van Helsing Organization. Rennie had joined on the spot.

As for what Rennie was doing in Portland Maine? Officially he was on vacation there. He was going to meet his little sister Framboise who was, and I cannot make this up, Matt’s girlfriend. Alright, if I’m being honest Framboise wasn’t really his girlfriend. The two just slept together for three years. I swear the stuff those two did, I can never get the sounds out of my mind. But the two really did care about one another, they had just agreed to not put labels on their relationship, but had kept in regular contact during our training down in Cazador. 

Getting back on topic, Rennie had a contact in US customs who had gotten his gear around baggage check when his plane landed. Must have been a real reliable contact given how heavily armed and armored Rennie was. He had been in Portland for about five hours when Framboise had called him, saying that she was ill, and therefore was unable to join him in Portland. Rennie while there to spend time with his sister, was also keeping his ear to the ground for any sighting or rumor of the supernatural. Which is how he heard about the situation unfolding involving the arachnie and the later to be discovered Jouroguomo. 

Oh and speaking of said Jouroguomo… I was once again back in our compound’s armory. I was organizing my gear once again, because I had no idea what to do about my backup baby Sig and my twin peacemakers that my grandpa Woods had left me. I was telling Tony and Jillian about the last two jobs we had just completed. I was multi-tasking in giving my half-siblings a blow-by-blow analysis of everything had happened, while thinking what I was going to do with those three separate sidearms. And that’s when Matt ran into the armory, and he did not look happy. No he looked both scared and really really pissed off.

“Locke just called Lucas,” He said as he practically slammed into his weapons locker. “That Jouroguomo bitch’s car was spotted three blocks away from Framboise’s apartment!”

Now I wasn’t particularly all that fond of Framboise, only because she and Matt kept me awake half the night whenever she stayed at our apartment. But Matt was over the moon in love with her, and he was my best friend. And I’d take a bullet for my best friend, so that made saving Framboise the highest priority at that moment. I grabbed my CQC vest, my Uzi, and stuffed my baby Sig into the pocket of the cargo pants I was wearing. I grabbed the keys to my Mustang, and was hot on Matt’s heels as he ran to the garage. 

The sun had set a couple of hours ago, but I had driven Matt to Framboise’s apartment so many times when his Crown Vic was in the shop, that I knew how to get there blindfolded. Now I said it before, Matt was over the moon in love with this woman, therefore he’d do anything for her. If that meant A lying about what he was really doing now, in order to keep her from getting executed by the MCB. And B breaking every speed limit in upstate New York in order to prevent her from potential liquification by a nasty supernatural being, yeah he’ll do it in half a heartbeat. Now that whole thing about breaking every speed limit in upstate New York? Oh yeah he was doing just that, but my Mustang was much faster than his Crown Vic, therefore I got to Framboise’s place first. 

Her car, a small dark blue Mini Cooper was parked in one of the spaces her apartment complex offered. And there was another vehicle I didn’t recognise that was hastily parked up on the curb. I had my baby Sig drawn, as I quickly made my way over to the vehicle.“Rhode Island license plate, broken driver side window … shit and blood.” 

Matt’s Vic pulled up a second later, and he vaulted out of his car without killing the engine. “Let’s get in there Jimmi!” 

“She’s your girl man, you go in first.” I replied. My heart was thudding against my ribcage, and adrenaline was flooding my veins as we ran past the complex’s bashed in front door. Then we heard something we really hoped we wouldn’t hear. A high-pitched horror movie-esque scream. Framboise. We hauled ass up three flights of stairs, and past the destroyed door to Framboise’s apartment. 

I don’t even remember opening up on the Jouroguomo, but nine rounds from my baby Sig, and nine from Matt’s Tac 45 for a total of eighteen rounds of .45 silver Pow’rball ammo later, the bitch’s half-human half-spider corpse was sprawled out in Framboise’s living room right in front of the terrified French woman.

“Think she’s dead?” I asked, chancing a glance at Matt.

“Let’s make-fucking-sure.” He replied icily, and I knew despite how pissed he was, exactly what he was thinking. We quickly crossed to the presumed dead Jouroguomo, and aimed at the back of its head.

_“And shepards we shall be.”_  
_“For thee my Lord, for thee.”_  
_“Power hath flown from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command.”_  
_“And so we shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls will it ever be.”_  
_“In Nomine Patris, et Fili, et Spiritus Sancti.”_

Two trigger pulls a split-second later, the Jouroguomo that had gotten away from us in Portland, and had just now attempted to kill Framboise was very much dead.


	9. Chapter 9

For a while, all Framboise could do was stare at the two of us in shock. But honestly who could blame her? A half human half spider just splintered the door to her apartment, and had attempted to kill her, only for her … For lack of a better term, boyfriend and his best friend to come in afterwards, and gun down the monster who had just attempted to kill her.

“Hey, we should call the team. Let them know the one that got away, just got taken out.” I said, as the expended 10 round magazine fell to the floor of Framboise’s apartment with a dull thunk. I fished another out of the small ammo pouches I had clipped onto my belt, and a moment later the slider came forward, chambering the first round in the 10 round mag.

“Yeah you’re right,” Matt said reloading his Tac 45. “We gotta let them know-” We turned our guns, and aimed at the now open (if you could even call it that now) doorway, while at the same time keeping the Jouroguomo’s corpse hidden from sight. The sound of heavy footfalls reached our ears, and with what had just happened the two of us weren’t taking any chances. Hammers were cocked back, and fingers were on triggers. It would only take 4.75lbs of pressure to end anything hostile that came through that doorway.

The problem was, what came into that doorway wasn’t supernatural, but human. A woman in her late 30’s who practically screamed ‘soccer mom’. “What the hell is going on here!?”

“You know, most people don’t run towards the sound of gunfire.” I remarked snarkily, still keeping my Sig leveled. 

“Frenchie, what the hell did I tell you about keeping the goddamn noise down.” Soccer mom growled. “That’s it, I’m calling the cops.”

“Good luck with that,” Matt replied in an equally snarky tone, before digging into his pocket and pulling out his wallet, which was a replica of credentials most Federal Agents keep. Complete with a badge and everything. I can’t really mock him though, I have the same wallet, which really came in handy during this situation. “Federal Agents ma’am. Agent Eastwood, this is my partner Agent Walker. We’re going to have to ask you to leave now ma’am. This area is now a crime scene.”

The sight of a set of fake credentials, which looked real from the distance that separated us and soccer mom, now combined with two very real sidearms that were loaded and ready to rock and roll, was enough to make her back off. Although that attitude of hers still persisted. “I’m still calling the cops.”

Soccer mom stalked off, and Matt holstered his Tack 45 before turning his attention back to Framboise. Only to run into a vicious slap in the face by the French woman, who began to yell at him in rapid French. Since I took Spanish in High School (which was a bit of a joke), I couldn’t understand a word she was saying. 

I wanted to take myself out of that situation, and possible argument, I stepped outside, past the splinters of what remained of the front door. I dug my phone out of one of the pockets in my cargo pants, and dialed Pat’s number. While he didn’t sound too happy about us going out by ourselves with no backup, our team leader completely understood where Matt was coming from, and that he’d be there soon.

That was right about the time I noticed soccer mom at the far end of the hallway on her phone, and from her body language, she looked like she was trying to stay out of sight. And my suspicions were confirmed when she tried to duck out of sight when she caught me looking at her. Something odd was going on here. My right hand closed around my smaller Sig, which I hadn’t bothered to safety. Whatever was going on with her, I didn’t like it at all. Not one bit.

Feeling like Pat couldn’t get here soon enough, I ducked back into Framboise’s apartment, where the argument between the two seemed to have quelled. Or rather Framboise had stopped screaming at Matt in very angry French. “Guys I have a bad feeling about that woman, I think we should get out of here.”

“The soccer mom?” Matt asked, still massaging the spot where Framboise had slapped him. Girl can pack one hell of a right hook. “Why what’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but I saw her when I called Pat. It looked like she was trying to stay out of sight, and she all but jumped back into her apartment when she saw me looking at her.” 

“Framboise, how long has that woman been living here?” Matt asked, turning his attention back to her.

“I think eight months, give or take a few weeks.” She replied, then added as if feeling she was missing something. “What is going on Matthew?”

“It is a very long story, which we can explain after we get you out of here.” Matt said, becoming serious as we both know what was coming. “But we need to go now.”

“Uh too late.” I said looking out of Framboise’s balcony window. “Black SUVs not ours on the street. Annnd we got guys with AK’s coming in.”

“And we have pistols.” Matt said before swearing in French. “We can’t fight these guys off with just forty five caliber pistols.”

The sound of heavy footfalls coming up the stairs seriously limited our options. We could fight our way to the parking lot. Not an option seeing as how we’d get killed if we did. We only had our tac vests, and not our armor. Or we could try and sneak out via climbing down the balconies, which was clearly the better option. 

We didn’t have a whole lot of time, so we had to act real fast. Framboise went outside first, then Matt, and I was the last one on that balcony. I shut the sliding glass door, before Matt manuvered his way over the rail of the balcony, before carefully dropping to the second. 

“Alright Framboise you’re next. I’ve got you covered.” I said, trying to both keep her covered, and stay hidden from sight at the same time. It took her longer to get down to the lower balcony, as she was terrified given the situation. Honestly I couldn’t blame her. Once she was down safely, it was my turn. But by that time, those guys with AKs which I could only assume were part of the angry werewolf pack after Matt and myself had come running into Framboise’s apartment. There wasn’t much cover on this balcony, but luckily for me the sun had set hours ago, so I was partially concealed in shadow like some sort of anime assassin. But there was no time to revel in that. I came here to help Matt rescue Framboise from a Jouroguomo, not get killed on a semi-darkened apartment balcony by what could only be the large pack of werewolves that wanted us dead. So as quick as I could, I manuvered down from Framboise’s balcony, and dropped down onto the second. From there all we had to do was vault over the small iron railing, and we were in the parking lot.

“Jimmy, over here.” Matt said keeping his voice low. He had opened the trunk of one of the SUVs, which I saw were loaded with a large assortment of weapons and ammo. These guys really were here to kill us judging from all the hardware. “We have enough here to go back in and take those sons of bitches out... Or we could use this.” Matt pulled a case of C4 out of the open trunk. My guess was that after they killed us, they were going to use the C4 to get rid of the evidence.

“Matthew what is all this?” Framboise asked hysterical. “What the hell is going on? Tell me right now!”

“Alright, about eight months ago Jimmi and I got attacked by werewolves. We killed all of them without getting a scratch, but apparently we’d pissed off someone higher in the pack those wolves belonged to. And now they’re trying to kill us to avenge one of the five wolves we killed.”

“And that woman.” I added, pointing back to the apartment complex. “The soccer mom, she called and told them where we were. She’s with them… You said she moved in eight months ago. They were keeping tabs on us, they know our scents, and no offense Framboise, you probably have Matt’s scent all over you.”

“What do you mean by…?” Framoise’s eyes widened a moment later, when she finally understood what I meant. 

“Alright,” Matt started. “We got enough firepower here to take those wolves out. I say we go back in there.” 

“But it’s still six versus two,” I replied, peeking around the back of the large SUV. “We’re outnumbered three to one, and these guns the wolves have aren’t loaded with silver rounds. Either we gotta wait until the team gets here, or fall back.”

“If we wait for the team, we’ll risk innocent civilians getting killed,” Matt countered. “If we pull back, they’ll definately get killed. Look Pat might be miffed at us, but he said that we’d be fucked with him if we ended up killing civilians, and if we pulled back now it’s just as bad as us shooting the innocent people in that building ourselves.”

This long day had just gotten longer. “Goddamnit, I hate it when you’re right. But the problem is, we only have pistols. I left the Uzi in my car.” 

“Alright, I’ll cover you but take Framboise with you. I don’t want her caught up in the firefight.”

After checking to see that nobody was looking out their windows, Framboise and I moved as quick as we could to where Matt and I had parked. While Framboise took cover in Matt’s Crown Vic, I grabbed my Uzi from where it had fallen on the floor of the passenger side seat, as a thought ran through my mind. Why did we not hear sirens? 10 overlapping gunshots fired in this neighborhood, police would be here in less than 3 minutes. Did the wolves have someone in the police department, or had someone from the team already called to run interference? 

I shook my head to clear those thoughts. I couldn’t think about that right now, right now we had six or possibly more heavily armed and extremely dangerous werewolves to deal with. But we still had no idea on how the two of us were going to deal with said aforementioned heavily armed werewolves. 

“Pat, seriously hurry it up.” I said to myself, and I was almost immediatly blinded by several sets of high-beam headlights. I ducked behind the passenger side door, and leveled my Uzi. If those were more wolves, they were going to be in for a nasty shock. Luckily for me, some deity must be looking out for me, Pat, Alex, Clare, Terry Creed, and Kai came out looking ready for a fight. 

“You alright rookie?” Creed asked stepping around the passenger door. I noted that he rocked a full-sized SCAR-H SOPMOD, and a twin set of Glock 21 gen 4’s. You know, I heard Alex once describe Creed as looking like Jason Bly from Burn Notice. That’s not entirely accurate. He honestly looked more like Rick Flagg from the new Suicide Squad film.

“Yeah, I’m good.” I replied, as he helped me to my feet. “Man am I glad to see you guys.”

“What’s the situation Jimmi?” Pat asked, racking back the charging handle of his M4.

“Six plus wolves inside, unknown number of civilians inside as well.” I replied, as my grip tightened around my Uzi. “It’s only a matter of time before they get impatient and start shooting up the place.”

Pat nodded. “Alright, we need to get in there now before-” Pat got cut off, and everyone turned their weapons towards the apartment complex when the sound of gunfire came from somewhere inside. “Before that happens! Fuck, let’s get in there now!”

We hit the building hard and fast. Matt who had been given a K-10 Vector subgun made by KRISS as his temporary replacement, and myself were on point. Two wolves were on the second floor landing looking like they were about to kick a door down. Several bursts of surppressed gunfire took care of them, and for good measure to make sure they stayed down, we put several more silver .45 rounds into their skulls. 

Pat, Alex, and Clare swept through the second landing, while Matt, Kai Creed, and myself went up to the third landing. If I thought they would be waiting for us, I thought wrong. Or at least I did until we got to soccer mom’s apartment. The door was split in half, and soccer mom was bleeding into her apartments shag carpeting. But there was no time to focus on checking on weather she was alive or not. 

When we entered soccer mom’s apartment, Matt and me went in first, Creed and Kai covered our six. And right then shit got crazy. Granted shit had gotten crazy earlier, but shit just went nuts when we entered soccer mom’s place. Creed entered the apartment followed by Kai, and something slammed into her. We spun about and leveled our weapons at what turned out to be this 6 foot 8 mountain of a man, who currently had his large beefy hands wrapped about Kai’s throat.

I leveled my Uzi at his head, and my finger curled around my subgun’s trigger, but before I could drop him, Kai’s hands came down hard on this guy’s forearms causing him to let go of her throat. She followed up with a left hook, and then a right palm strike which staggered her assailant. Kai tried to sweep the guy’s legs, but he had either recovered, or was way too big for Kai’s 5 foot 8 frame to take down with a sweep kick. The mountain just smiled at her with this vicious predatory grin that basically said: ‘You done fucked up sweetheart’.

And that was when my right fist made contact with this guy’s nose. I heard and felt it break under my fist, as the mountain staggered back, with both hands now covering his bleeding nose. It doesn’t matter how big you are, a broken nose is a broken nose, and it hurts like hell. I hit him in the same place again, granted that both times I hit him, I had to jump to better hit my target kinda like Roman Reigns’ Superman Punch. The second time I hit the guy, I landed in a crouch, and felt someone use my back as a sort of springboard. I heard the sound of a powerful strike landing, and the mountain grunting in pain, right before he hit the floor. Not taking any chances, I fished my baby Sig from my pocket and put two silver rounds into this guy’s forehead.

“Well that was fun.” I said, nodding in approval, right before I felt a hand grab my tac-vest and pull me back. I heard several more silenced gunshots sound from overhead. When I looked up, Kai was … well for lack of a better term crouched over me. One of her silenced Tac-45’s was drawn, and I actually saw one of the shell casings leave the ejection slide. I turned my attention towards the direction of where Kai’s sidearm was aimed, and saw a fourth wolf slumped against the opposite wall. There was a trail of blood leading down to where his body was, and one more silenced chirp later, the contents of that wolf’s brains splattered the wall. 

“Keep doing this, and I might start to think you like me.” I said with some slight cheek before Kai helped me to my feet.

“I notice that you only seem to have some bravado once the danger has passed.” Kai replied matching my cheeky tone.

If I was going to reply to that, I never got the chance. The fifth and sixth wolves came out from somewhere in soccer mom’s apartment. Almost as if on instinct (of course with all that training in Cazador it damn well might have been instinct) I brought up my baby Sig, and put three more rounds each into them. They fell back as my Sig’s slide came back, as the magazine was expended. “Weird, I could have sworn I had four more rounds in this magazine.”

“Who are you Archer?” Matt scoffed, handing me back my Uzi, after I had reloaded my baby Sig.

“Is that all of ‘em rookies?” Creed asked, lowering his SCAR.

“Should be, I saw six enter, but their could be more.” I replied right before Pat stepped into the splintered doorway.

“It’s clear. No sign of anymore hostiles.” He said lightning up another cigarette. “Counting that … Jouroguomo you called it Kai?” Kai nodded in response. “That makes it seven hostile contacts down. But I still have a few questions rookies. For starters, who the hell is the freaked out girl in your car Matt? And did you guys go Boondock Saints on that Jouroguomo in the other apartment?”

“Her name is Framboise Benoit.” Matt began. “For all intents and puurposes boss, she’s my girlfriend. And yeah we did. We wanted to make sure she … it was dead. We didn’t end up hitting anyone with those last two shots did we?”

Pat Shook his head, expelling smoke from his mouth. “Nah you’re good, but seriously if you guys are going to do that, at least let me be there for it.”

“We’ll try boss, but no promises.” Matt replied. 

“Right, I called Locke already, Cops and MCB are on their way. Matt, check your girlfriend into a hotel until she can come back here.”

“Uh boss,” I spoke up. “That might not be the best idea.”

“What do you mean Jimmi?” Pat asked before taking a long drag on his cigarette. 

“I think the wolves have our scent. Mine and Matt’s.” I replied. “The woman laying at your feet I think is an informant for these wolves. Framboise said that she had moved in about eight months ago. Eight months ago boss.”

“Which is right around the time you two incurred the wrath of the new alpha.” Pat replied, gesturing to the two of us with his cigarette between the index and middle fingers of his right hand. “But why here, and why the hell is she,” he pointed to soccer mom’s corpse, “all riddled with bullets?”

“Well Framboise practically reeks of Matt’s scent, as the two did nothing but sleep with each other for the past four years.” I said, continuing my explenation. “As for soccer mom here, my guess was that when the wolves couldn’t find us, they shot her out of frustration.”

“And that’s right when we showed up.” Pat replied, finishing his cigarette. “Alright, get your girlfriend back in here Matt, have her grab some of her clothes. She can room with you back at the compound.”

“Mom and dad are gonna love this.” Matt said sarcastically, as we exited the apartment about 20 minutes later carrying armfuls of Framboise’s clothes. 

“That my friend is your problem.” I replied, setting the clothes in the back seats of Matt’s crown vic. “I on the other hand need am taking a shower then going to Ihop.”

“Dude, it’s almost midnight.”

“Yeah, so what? They’re open twenty four hours, and i really want some pancakes.” I replied, and we both started laughing.


	10. Chapter 10

About two weeks after we had dealt with the Jouroguomo and the six werewolves that had stormed into Framboise’s apartment, I found myself in the Adirondack mountain range. Why were we up there you ask? Well the locals had been plagued by a ‘“bear attack,” but bears leave evidence of their attacks. Hands, legs, torsos, something that can be identified. Fortunately, one of the officers up there wasn’t stupid, and had made a call. That call was to Earl Harbinger down in Cazador, who had relayed the message to us. So that’s why Terry Creed had taken Matt, Rocky, Thom, Isabelle, and myself up to the Adirondacks.

It was about 4 in the afternoon, and raining like God had decided to wash away all of humanity like he did in the tale of Noah’s Arc by the time we had arrived. The officer that had called Earl Harbinger was waiting for us outside his station. The officer had a bomber jacket similar to Earl’s over his uniform, and the wide brimmed officer hat one normally sees in outer county’s was due to the rain, completely soaked He like most people who live in central and upstate New York had that weathered look of being used to the bad weather, but still hating it with a passion.

“Pat Martin?” The officer asked Creed as he stepped out of the drivers side of one of the two SUV’s that we had driven up.

“No sir, Terry Creed. Temporary team lead.” Creed replied, as the rest of us stepped out of the SUV’s.

“Simon Baird.” The officer replied, shaking Creed’s hand. I learned later that everyone around here called him The Bear or simply Bear. “I’m the Sheriff in this county, and obviously the one who called your boss who directed me to your team lead.”

“Which leads me to my next question,” Creed began adjusting the cap on his head. “How do you know Harbinger?”

Sheriff Baird reached into his jacket and pulled out a well worn business card, which I recognised as the same business card that Matt and I had been given when Alex and clare had recruited us. “This isn’t the first werewolf I’ve dealt with. Earl tried recruiting me a few years back, but I enjoyed being an officer of the law too much at the time, and still do. Still though, it’s been years since anything like this has happened up here. But let’s not stand around in the rain freezing our nuts off, come on inside and I’ll explain.”

Sheriff Baird led us into the station, and into a small briefing/conference room. There were maps of the area, and photos of the multiple crime scenes that made horror movies look tame. In every photo, there was blood everywhere, but no body parts, or human remains at all except all that blood.

“These are bad.” I said, looking at several of the crime scene photos, and holding back a shudder at one in particular. I was looking at a photo of a tent that was ripped to shreds, and four separate sleeping bags. Two of which were kid-sized. This wolf had targeted families.

“It gets worse.” Sheriff Baird said setting three mangled gold police badges onto the table in the center of the room. “I lost three lieutenants and a deputy to this damn wolf. I lost lieutenant Williams and deputy Shavers two months ago. Last month it was lieutenant Grissom, and it was yesterday that I lost my third but best lieutenant in Wilkins.”

“So let me get this straight,” Isabelle frowned, and crossed her arms. “You had a run in with a werewolf in the past, so therefore you know the signs of a werewolf attack. However, you don’t call us right away, and instead send your own men to the scenes, and to their subsequent deaths.”

Baird’s hand gripped one of the mangled badges, so that his knuckles were white. “I have the balls to admit that I fucked up. But there was a small underlying circumstance in this FUBAR situation.”

“And that would be what?” Isabelle asked in a disgusted tone, looking like she might punch Sheriff Baird. 

“A hunting company came through last week asking about the recent ‘attacks’.” Baird replied.

“Another hunting company?” Creed asked, placing his soaked cap back on his head after wringing the water out of it. “What did they call themselves?”

“Paranormal Tactical or something along those lines.” Baird replied, causing both Creed and Isabelle to scoff.

“You accepted the help of those ammetures?” Creed asked, shaking his head.

“They offered to help, and I was in no position to refuse. I’d already lost two lieutenants and a deputy by that point, not to mention that this werewolf has claimed fifteen victims in two months.” Baird replied. 

“Alright, now you know not to accept help from dime-a-dozen companies like Paranormal Tactical. You want a solution to your problem, you call our company first, because we’ll save you a lot of stress, paperwork, and manpower. Oh and not to mention, we’ll actually get the job done.” I gotta hand it to Creed, he’s a pretty good speaker.

“Alright Mr. Creed, I see your point,” Baird began. “Now would you please take care of my problem before anymore innocent people get brutalized by this werewolf?”

“Gladly,” Sheriff Baird said before pointing at the map of the county. “There are a couple camps around Sarnac Lake. That’s where all the attacks happened. My best guess is he’s holed up in this area here. It’s real thick forest, where the choppers can’t see.”

“Perfect.” Creed scoffed.

“Oh it get’s better. Ever see the Blair Witch Project?”

“Aw fuck.” Rocky groaned.

“Let me guess,” Creed began. “Run down creepy-ass cabin right in the center of that thick forest?”

“And we have a winner.” Baird said. “Locals won’t go near it, and warn everybody camping out there to stay away from it as well. If that werewolf is anywhere in those woods, dollars to doughnuts it’s hiding out in that cabin in between transformations and moon cycles.”

“Can we set that cabin on fire once we’re finished?” I asked, pushing away the crime scene photos. I honestly couldn’t stand looking at them anymore, my stomach was churning so bad.

“If you have explosives, I’d prefer you demolish that fucking place.” Baird replied. 

“That we can do.” Creed replied.

“I’ll drive you out there.” Baird said, in a resigned tone. I couldn’t tell if he was more against going out to the site of the wolf attacks, or going back out in the rain. But hey, at least it wasn’t the snow.

Okay you know what? I take that back. The rain sucked just as bad. Especially if you consider where we were. A mountain range in northern New York, we were going into a forest where the damn rain comes down even harder for some reason, oh not to mention that it was late September, and the weather begins fluctuating something crazy during the transition months from summer to fall and finally winter. So this particular day was wet, and freezing. Oh and if I hadn’t mentioned it before, the rain was coming down like God had decided to flood the entire world once again.

Nobody was happy as we got our armor on, and our gear assembled. We were all trying to use the hatch-back of the SUVs to keep ourselves dry. Yeah, didn’t really work out too well. I was in the process of securing one of my tac-vests, when Creed stopped me.

“Switch to your marksman vest, and bring out your new toy. It’s time to break that beauty in.”

What Creed had meant by that, was my new REPR.

Now to further continue telling this story, I have to go back and tell you another story first, so that you can fully understand just how I came to own the beautiful .308 rifle that is my new REPR.

So it happens a few days after Matt and Mine’s little stunt at Framboise’s apartment. Pat was miffed yea, but more miffed that the two of us had went off on our own without waiting for the team to assemble their gear. But to that end, if we hadn’t rushed off like we did, Framboise would have been liquified. But nobody civilian-wise had gotten hurt, and the only casualties were the six werewolves, and the Jouroguomo that had evaded us in Portland. 

And to that end, I had tried reading up on what those things were, and what Kai had told us back in Portland was exactly what every site I had gone to had said. For a near extinct species of monster, they weren’t as durable as oh say a vampire. I mean the one Matt and I had killed had taken ten rounds from a .45 caliber handgun. Oh wait, no I’m wrong, it took twenty. But still these things aren’t one of the most durable of supernatural creatures out there.

But anyways, I was where I usually was in the compound. If you guessed it was the armory, than you win the grand prize. I wasn’t doing anything special this time, just refilling my CQC tac-vest with more Uzi mags. Anyways, I became aware that I wasn’t the only one in the compound’s armory. And that’s how I ended up aiming my baby Sig at Riza.

“Easy kid, she’s with us.” Earl Harbinger’s voice came from behind the werewolf, before the companies acting director stepped into the armory followed by the rest of his team. 

I took my finger off the trigger, but didn’t lower my Sig. I was weighing the options of shooting Riza right here and now. Might have been Earl Harbinger’s say so. And despite her being some sort of mole in her pack, she was to my knowledge at that point still part of the pack that was gunning for me and Matt. And if I was not mistaken, she was still on the Puff list. So, werewolf and potential mole for her pack, who’s new alpha wanted us dead, and was possibly not on the Puff exemption list. So she had to go.

“Kid, I know what you’re thinking.” Harbinger said, placing one of his hands on my baby Sig. The guy was strong, even for an act as simple (and dangerous) as lowering someone’s sidearm. “Everyone in Cazador wanted to shoot her when we brought her back. But her info is good, and I got some information for Martin. Now where is your team lead?”

“Rec room.” I replied, flicking the safety on my baby Sig back on. “I think there’s a Jets game on.”

“Ten says they’re getting destroyed.” Owen said scoffing.

“They’re playing the Patriots,” I replied in a half dry, half laughing tone. “Of course they’re getting destroyed. So whatever info you have is sure to put him in a better mood than the results of that game.”

“Kid needs to pick a better team.” Earl lit a cigarette, before he and the majority of his team filed out of the armory. Milo Anderson was the only one on Earl’s team who stayed in the armory.

“Not as big as the one I’ve got in Cazador, but you guys still have a good sized place to work.” Milo said stretching out, like he was about to make himself at home.

“You’re the gunsmith for your team?” I asked, placing my tac-vest back into my locker.

“For the whole company kid.” Milo replied. “I made Owen’s Abomination.”

“Abomination?” I asked, turning my head towards his direction.

“That Seiga he always has with him.” Milo replied, and there was both adoration in his voice and in his tone. The guy obviously takes pride in his work. “I did another custom shotgun for a team down in Scranton. Warhammer.”

“You mean an AR-15 that’s been converted to fire 12 gage shells?” I asked in amazement. I’d heard of the Warhammer, but had never seen one up close, let alone gotten the chance to fire one.

“Well look who knows their weapons.” Milo said, sitting in front of the multiple workbenches we have in our armory. “Yeah, I did a little tinkering with this particular one. The big one was that I added a flamethrower onto the under barrel.”

I lost my footing, and stumbled forward a little bit. “A flamethrower? You added a flamethrower to a Warhammer?”

“Yep. People call me an evil genius.” He said examining a couple weapon parts someone had left scattered on the workbench.

“Well they’re right about that.” I said reaching into my locker and pulling out my Uzi. “It took my dad, my friends dad, and myself to convert this baby to not mangle forty five ammo.”

Milo looked at my Uzi like it was an old friend he hadn’t seen in a very long time. “I haven’t seen one of these in a long time. Not since Iron Hand Chad.”

“Who is that?” I asked, as I handed Milo my Uzi.

“His real name, which he hated was Oliver Chadwick Gardenier. Everyone called him Chad or Iron Hand. He was one hell of a hunter, and Chad was the forerunner of what MHI calls the Iron Hand Uzi like the one you have here.”

“I really thought that I had something special with that.” I said feeling disappointment at the fact that my Uzi wasn’t all that special.

“You do kid.” Milo reassured. “Not a lot of people since Chad have used the Uzi because of what it does to forty five ammo. Plus Chad never left any plans on how to successfully convert the Uzi. I tried a couple times, but it never really was the same product Chad had. Trust me kid, when I say that there hasn’t been an Iron Hand Uzi like this since Irond Hand was with us, then believe me, you have something special.”

“You’re referring to Chad in the past-tense.” I said, wondering at the same time I spoke it. “Did something happen to him, in that he’s no longer with the company?”

Milo sighed, and set my Uzi down on the workbench. “The short version is that his name is on one of the silver plaques in the main compound.”

“Shit, I’m sorry about that.” 

Milo waved it off. “It’s fine kid. Actually, you mind if I hold onto this for a little bit? I wanna see what makes this thing tick.”

“Sure, just make sure I get it back.” I replied. I actually felt a little proud of myself, sure I wasn’t the first to come up with what Milo had called the Iron Hand Uzi, but I had helped it make a comeback. “You want details, talk to my dad or Mr. Reese. Oh and If you do decide to produce these things to the rest of the company, John Morrison and Kai Leng both want one.”

“I knew I would find you here.” Kai said from somewhere behind me.

“Oh god damnit!” My fists hit the workbench, as Milo laughed his ass off. “Gotta put a bell on you or something!”

“That’s twice I’ve gotten you.” Kai laughed. 

“Yeah, one more and you win a prize.” I laughed weakly. “Okay so what brings you down here, other than scaring the crap out of me?”

“Just telling you that Alex wants you to get your armor on. We’re going back to Fulton, and that vampire nest.” 

I felt a chill go down my spine, as I turned to look at her. “Why are we going back there?”

“Alex is following up on a hunch.” Kai explained. “He says that when we were there, we did not end up finding its coffin.”

And that’s when things clicked for me. “Oh shit, is this a team priority?” 

Ten minutes later, I’m sitting in the passenger seat of one of our teams large SUVs, with my AR-15 in my lap. I’d purchased a Trijicon Blackout 300 Acog scope. Kai was driving, Rocky, Matt and Creed were in the back. And I have no idea why, but some crazy-ass death metal was blaring out of the vehicle’s speakers. Apparently she was real into death metal, and if you gave her the name of any song off of any album in existence, she could recite the lyrics to it word for word. Owen had once joked about introducing her to someone named Skippy. My guess was whoever this person was, he was another death metal fan.

“So what’s the deal here?” I asked, turning to face Creed. “Is it something along the lines of driver chooses the music, and passengers shut their cake-holes?”

“Pretty much rookie.” Creed replied, tugging his cap down over his face. “Just relax, and let the heavy drum beats soothe you.”

I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew someone was shaking me awake. “Wake up kid, we’re here.” I registered Terry Creed’s slight accent. Maybe Tennessee, or somewhere around there, but I had just woken up, correction been woken up, and my brain wasn’t in any state to be putting things together.

“Anybody got any coffee?” I asked, after shaking my head.

“Not even the instant stuff.” Creed replied, before opening the rear passenger door of the SUV we were piled into.

“Well potential vampire first, coffee run later.” I said grabbing my AR-15, and exiting the SUV. We were back in front of that condemned office building that was once used as a base for a satanic cult, and a vampire nest. And we were going back in there. Hey, I told you that my life was weird.

The MCB had already beaten us here along with the local cops and state troopers. This was certainly going to draw a crowd, and it made me wonder what the MCB was going to use as a cover story for this situation. Well whatever it was, I’d let Earl and Pat talk it out with Locke, or whoever Locke had sent in his place in case he couldn’t make it.

“You sure going in with that thing is the best idea?” Matt asked nodding at my AR-15, as he exited the SUV.

“Milo’s back at the compound kinda drooling over my Uzi,” I replied, and rotating my rifle 45 degrees. There was a small RMR reflex sight on a 45 degree angle on my ACOG scope, just in case whatever I went up against decided to get up close and personal. “Besides, I figured I’d have to break this rifle in sooner or later.”

“Well what’s your take on all this?” He asked looking back at the building we had cleared just a few nights ago, as Rocky exited the vehicle. 

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, which was in my dad’s opinion in need of a trim. You see if I don’t cut my hair when it starts getting unruly, it grows out. And I don’t mean it grows towards the ground, no it grows straight back and gets curly. And I hadn’t cut my hair in 8 months. But I’m getting off topic.

“Look, we cleared that building bottom to top. There are only three levels, and nobody found any coffin.” I began. “That’s the pessimistic view of looking at things. But the way we entered a couple nights ago? That entrance might have had sewer access. They thrive where there’s no sun.”

“That’s a good thought.” Rocky said. “I mean those wights, and that other vampire could have come up to have a little fun. Lucky we got there when we did. No telling how much damage they would have caused if they loosed themselves on the town. Plus there’s the fact we never did a follow-up, because those wolves attacked right after we offed that vampire.”

“So if this theory is correct, we’re all gonna need a serious shower once this is over.” Matt groaned.

It was right about that time, that a woman with slightly curly brown and slightly greying hair in a casual light blue business suit stepped past the heavy police and MCB blockade, and headed straight for me. “James? James is that you?”

Shit, it was my mom. The last time I’d seen my mom, I mean really seen my mom was when I had found out my grandpa Woods had left me his house and car. Yeah, that hadn’t been the best conversation in the world. “Hi mom.”

“James, what are you doing here? And what the hell is going on?” She asked, as I waved away an officer that had come to tell her she had to leave the area.

“She’s okay,” I told the officer who backed off, before turning my attention back to my mom, trying to keep my tone even. “And it’s a long story. The short version is, I’m a civilian contractor, there are some very bad people holed up either in here,” I jerked my head towards the ruined office building, “and we need to go in there and take care of them.”

My mom sighed in resignation, and pinched the bridge of her nose between her left thumb and index finger. “I really should have seen that coming. Does your father know about,” she gestured to all of the gear I had on, “all of this?”

“Yeah he knows. And he was pissed.” I replied.

“Well of course he’d be pissed, you are the only child we had together, and he doesn’t want to lose you.” Was I going insane? Was mom sympathizing with dad. I mean yes she’s done it before, but those moments were very few and far between if dad ever came up in a conversation. But something clicked in my mind what she had said, and it made me wonder if my parents despite their divorce, still cared about one another.

“Well that explains why he was so reluctant to put in that good word, and allow me to join the Marines.” I replied, even though I already knew that. Still, it made more sense now.

“You see? And what did you do to your hair sweetheart?” I could not believe this.I was prepared for a heated argument, not this. I mean, here I was a 23 year old man armed to the teeth, and about to take on a potential vampire nest, and I was allowing my mom to fuss over the state of my hair. It was kind of embarrassing yes, but at the same time, it felt like the last conversation/argument we had, never took place, and in a way it felt kind of nice. “You kind of look like one of those characters in those shows you used to watch all the time. You know the ones with the spiked blond hair?”

Rocky started to laugh, but he shut up when I slugged him in the arm. “Ow! Jeez okay I get it!”

If anything else was going to be said in that moment, it never got the chance to be said. Pat came up to us at that moment, and from his expression, he meant business. “Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to step back behind the police baricade now. We’re going in. We’re going to insert via the sewer entrances in that building, so it’s gonna be close quarters. Fire only if you have a clear shot, and for the love of God, all of you be careful.”

My mom nodded that she understood, but before we could join the rest of our team and Earl’s team, my mom pulled me into one of those parental hugs that told me to be careful, right before she turned her attention to Matt and the few members of my team that were standing around the SUV. “Matthew, you watch out for my son. That goes for all of you. If anything happens to him-”

“Nothing’s going to happen to him Ma’am,” Matt replied matching my mom’s serious tone. “Not as long as I’m around.”

You remember when I said that I hated being right? Yeah, this was another one of those times. My theory proved true, and my team as well as 8 out of 9 of Earl’s were sloshing through miles of sewer, and things I did not want to know about. Hell the arachnies smelled better than this. And here I thought that being in the shit was a figure of speech. 

“Not much of a difference between being down here and the community up there.” I scoffed, as we moved slowly through the sewer pipe. It was myself, Kai, Creed, Matt, Rocky, and several heavily armed MCB agents. When we had entered the sewer, Earl had told us to split into smaller groups, so it would be easier to move about the pipes, and potentially box in anything supernatural I got a few dry chuckles for my little joke.

It was quiet for some time after that, either nobody cold think of anything, or nobody wanted to say anything just in case we were getting close and didn’t want to alert any potential threat that we were closing in on them. I didn’t think much of it, until Creed who was taking point signalled for us to stop.

“Getting close, take a look.” He turned his SCAR which had a small tac-light to the left side of the sewer pipe. I felt my blood chill, and a shudder went up my spine. The pipe wall was smeared in what could only be blood, and it wasn’t just that side of the pipe wall. Creed moved his SCAR up and along the pipe from left to right. Blood was smeared along the pipe wall left, right, and center.

Now here’s a little information about Matt. He’s super religious, although you wouldn’t think to look at him. He’s got a bit of a nervous tick in that whenever he gets nervous, and I mean incredibly nervous, he starts either praying or quoting passages from the bible. _“Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walketh about like a lion seeking whom he may devour.”_

“That’s real comforting Matt.” Rocky said, somewhere behind me and to my right. “That’s not freaking me out at all.”

I was about to comment, when Rocky screamed. I whirled around, and saw him sunk waist deep in sewer water. Thinking, something had grabbed him and was pulling him under, I grabbed onto one of his arms, and tried to haul him back to his feet, but he was sinking into that shit water fast.

“Damn this son of a bitch is heavy!” Matt groaned, as he grabbed onto Rock’s other arm, and an MCB agent grabbed Rock’s tac-vest.

“Shit, he’s slipping back! Christ man, what do you eat!?” I growled, as we continued to try and pull Rocky to his feet. Finally with a real nasty squelching sound, we succeeded in getting him to his feet.

“Rocky what the hell happened?” I asked, panting heavily. He only weighed about a buck-80, but he was heavier with all his gear on. 

“I fell in a damn hole.” He groaned, trying to fling off shit water from his hands. “Shit.”

“Alright, everyone back on me and watch your footing. We’re getting close.” Creed said, although I swore he was trying to hide that he was holding back a laugh. We continued sloshing through the worst refuse to be excreted from the worst pieces of human excrement on the planet for another half mile, before the pipe sloped up and gave way to some sort of brick or cobblestone. 

“Finally out of the shit.” I said greatfully, although it would take hours to wash the smell off of my clothes, weapons, and armor, and even more time to wash the smell off of all of us. 

“Any idea where we are?” Creed asked.

“Some sort of old cistern.” I replied. “I think this runs right under Third Street and the old church on the east end of town, and considering the potential threat, that’s kind of ironic.”

“Kind of is, but we’re going in the right direction.” Creed said shining the tac-light on his SCAR on the sloping floor of the cistern. Like the walls of the sewer pipe behind us, it too was covered in blood. Which made me wonder just how many people this vampire had taken, and why nobody had noticed? And that’s when I remembered, that this is the ass-end of New York, and nobody really gave a shit about the people here. I actually had to hand it to whoever this vampire had been (undead remember, they’re no longer people after they’ve been bitten) they were pretty smart in setting up shop here.

“Right then, everybody converge on the east end. There’s an old cistern with a big-ass blood trail that dollars to doughnuts leads right up to the nest.” Creed spoke into his com.

 _“Alright Creed, hold your position we’re on our way.”_ Earl’s voice cracked over the line, right before this creepy-ass growl echo from somewhere ahead of our position.

“Anyone feel like we can’t afford to wait for backup?” Rocky asked, and I noticed that his face was as pale as it was a few days ago.

I swear to God, you could not make this next part up. Everyone both hunters and agents looked at one another, and almost like we had planned this all said the same thing. “Damn.”

We made our way up the sloping cobblestone, or brick, or whatever the hell it was that made up the foundation of this cistern. I had thought that if we did end up encountering a vampire, that this was going to be bad. But nothing could have prepared me for what we would find on that day. 

The cobblestone eventually leveled out into a space about the size of a football field, and I could tell that we were under the old church because there were those small spaces dug into the stone where they place the candles (I have no idea what they’re called). And just like it was a couple of days ago in that office building, the whole space was packed with wights.

“Oh hell no.” Matt, Rocky, and myself said at the same time. Once again, and you cannot make this up, the three of us raised our rifles in the same motion, and opened up on the horde of wights. As Creed, and Kai joined us a second later in hosing down the wights with their own weapons, I heard a strangled cry come from behind us. I seriously wish I hadn’t turned around, but it was a good thing that I did.

Wights had come through the damned walls, and had taken down the MCB agents accompanying us. For those of you who don’t know, wights have a paralyzing touch. Even a single poke from one of its fingers is enough to put you on your ass. And there were about a dozen wights about to sink their razor sharp teeth into the heavy MCB armor. Another thing about wights for those who don’t know, their claws and fangs can and will rip through any armor in a matter of seconds. It’s why wights are better off being engaged at medium to long range, because if you’re in close proximity to one, and you don’t know what you’re doing, you are so dead.”

“Hostiles on our six!” I called out. I couldn’t use My rifle to take out the wights. They were on top of the agents, and if I took out one of the wights, I would end up killing an agent. Which would most certainly get MHI shut down, regardless of how much Agent Locke likes working with our company. It was becoming a habit, be dropping my rifle and allowing the sling to catch it, but that’s exactly what I did. My right hand flew to my full-sized Sig, it cleared leather, and the laser sight painted a target on the nearest wight the second my right index finger touched the trigger. 

The first three rounds from my Sig caught the closest wight in the head, turning the upper left portion of its skull into undead hamburger. In the split-second I saw that things head explode, I moved onto another target. I was aiming for its head like I had been with the first wight, but the first shot I fired missed, and caught the thing in the shoulder as the wight stood up, and focused its attention on me. It went down spinning in an almost comical 180, and its claws scratched a third’s face pretty badly. 

Two wights were hurt, but by no means were they out of the fight. I sighted on the wight with the scratched face, but I never got the chance to bring it down. Its face exploded when a trio of shots blew the things face apart. I chance a split-second glance to see who it was that stole my kill, and registered the profile of Terry Creed with one of his twin Glocks drawn, before putting down another wight, then another after that before my first magazine clicked empty. I hit the mag release, fished another out of my armor, and was ready to rock and roll when my Sig’s slider came forward to chamber the first round in the new magazine. Eject, new mag, slider forward just like they taught us in training.

“Clear the room and stabilize the agents, we’ll take care of this!” I was only vaguely aware of what Creed had said. I’d put three more silver .45 rounds into the wight that I had hit in the shoulder, and was on my third pistol mag by that time. More wights were pouring into the cistern, my guess was from the sewer. Either they were nesting there, or they were being pushed back. I was really hoping for the later option, good news is that we had passed the last agent that had been rendered immobile by the wights paralyzing touch. That meant I could transition back to my AR-15.

Creed had the same thought, and his SCAR’s tac-light illuminated what looked to be at least a dozen or two more wights pouring in from the sewer. It wasn’t an ideal place to use my ACOG scope, but fortunately for me I had a nice little RMR scope canted on my aformentioned ACOG. I canted my rifle 45 degrees, sighted on the nearest wight, and pulled the trigger. My AR-15 was the civilian model, meaning that it was single fire only, not that it bothered me in this situation. The AR-15 civilian model made a very good all-purpose battle rifle. And due to the fact that it was a high powered rifle, I was taking down wights 2 at a time (lucky shots maybe, but if you’re in a particular situation like this don’t look a gift horse in the mouth).

Like it had been when my magazines for my Sig clicked empty, it was mag release, new mag, slide forward, or in this case bolt forward. Now here’s a little need to know about civilian rifles. The magazine on the majority of them cannot be removed, and replaced with another. Fortunately, Brian didn’t sell those particular rifles at his store, so my particular AR-15 did have a magazine that could be swapped. 

Creed and I slowly thinned out the horde, as we pushed the wights back to the sewer. When one of the wights fell back with a disgusting sounding splash, I knew we’d reached the sewer once again. We snapped up our rifles, as wights to our left hit the shit water as pieces of undead hamburger. We held our fire, waiting to see who it was that had joined the fight, right before another wight went stiff as a board and dropped back into the water. Creed turned his tac-light onto the wight, and we saw the hilt of a large khukri knife buried into the forehead of said wight.

“I only know two people who do that,” Creed began, as more gunfire erased the last few wights. “And only one of them uses that kind of knife.”

Seconds later, Alex, Clare, James, Dimitri, Thom, and another 10 agents sloshed into view. The elder of the two Morrison brothers walked over to the wight with the large knife in its head, and ripped the blade out. He flicked the large knife, in an attempt to get wight blood and shit water off of his blade, before placing it back into its sheath that was upside down on his left arm. “And I thought being in the shit was a figure of speech.”

“You stole my line bro.” Thom said. It looked like he was trying not to vomit, but then again I was trying not to vomit.

“Oops.” Alex replied in a sarcastic tone, with a smirk to match his tone.

“Smartass.” Clare scoffed, as she reloaded her SCAR PDW.

“Damn straight.” Alex replied.

“Are they always like this?” I asked, and Creed nodded in response.

“All the time, but you get used to it.” Creed replied.

 _“Um guys, you might want to get up here. We hit the supernatural jackpot here.”_ Matt’s voice said over the com line.

“Sounds like they found the coffins.” Alex said.

“Well let’s not keep them waiting,” Creed began, “If one of those things comes out from its nap, they’re not gonna want to be by themselves.”

“Got that right.” Alex replied, and a few seconds later, we were moving up the sloping cobblestone of the cistern.

We made it into that large space in the cistern a few moments later. The place had been cleared of wights, but there were still chunks of them lying around. The MCB agents that had been surprised by the wights and subsequently paralyzed by their touch, were propped up against a wall to our left, and they were slowly regaining use of their limbs. Several of the agents that had entered the sewer with Alex went to check on their comrades, as the rest of us made our way over to where Kai, Matt, and Rocky were.

Matt was right about one thing, we had hit the supernatural jackpot. There wasn’t one, or two coffins cleverly tucked into the wall of the cistern. No, there were three. Three coffins, and we had only managed to take out one vampire. Don’t get me wrong, taking out a vampire is a commendable feat in and of itself. But when you find three coffins in the vicinity where you dealt with a vampire several days ago, it tends to kind of dilute the victory. 

“Alright, either we hold up and wait for everyone else, or we open these things, and steak the two fangs left in there.” Creed said, drawing a sharpened oak steak from somewhere behind his back.

I mirrored him by drawing my katana. What with all the gear I had, there was no room left for any steaks to be placed on my armor. Not that Pat had seen a problem with that. He was a firm believer in the steak and chop method that every hunter learned during their training. One person steaks said undead creature, someone else chops their head off. “So what’s the call here?” 

“Crack ‘em open.” Alex barked, and I heard the action of a pump gun cycle, before Matt and Rocky pried the first coffin open. 

It was empty, which must have meant that coffin belonged to the blond vampire that Alex had put his arm through. But that meant we had two more coffins that were occupied. Once again, Matt and Rocky pried the coffin open, and this one was occupied by a male who looked like he was in his late 20’s. Or at least that coffin was occupied by that person until his head rolled across the cistern floor, and his body collapsed with Creed’s oak steak embedded in that vampire’s chest. One down and one to go, and I just couldn’t shake this ominous feeling I had for some reason when Matt and Rocky pried open the third coffin. It was empty. And somehow I just knew It was going to be. Everyone including me started in surprise when the coffin turned to be empty.

“Alright, this isn’t good.” Alex said, as everyone lowered their weapons. “Earl, Pat, we have three coffins in here. We’ve dispatched one hostile without much trouble, but two coffins are empty. Suspected the vampire we dealt with several nights before occupied one of those coffins, but we still have one vampire on the loose down here.”

“Is there any other place for those things to go?” Earl’s voice asked over the com.

“There’s a set of stairs that lead up somewhere.” Alex replied.

“Those lead up to the basement of the old Third Street church,” Matt said, “The place has been closed for years. Boarded up, and falling apart. Could be the perfect spot for a vamp to hide out.”

“They lead up to an old church on Third Street. It’s boarded up and falling apart.” Alex relayed what Matt had told him over the com line.

_“Alright then, Martin my team and the rest of your team will surface and link up with Grant outside the church. We got the son of a bitch cornered, now let’s finish it off.”_

Pat groaned over the line. >i>“Do we really have to link up with Jefferson? I hate working with his useless ass.”

 _“So does Owen, but as it is Martin, you don’t really have a choice in the matter.”_ Earl replied over the line.

“Some distain for an MCB agent?” Rocky asked a few seconds later.

“Long story.” Alex replied.

“Short version then?” Rocky asked.

Alex opened his mouth to reply, but Clare cut him off. “Grant was part of Earl’s team. The guy talked a big game, thinking he was basically the greatest thing since sliced bread. Anyways, during the Cursed One Incident, he gets himself kidnapped and enthralled by a vampire.”

I shrugged, because I didn’t think that it was very fair for the team to think this guy was useless just because a high-ranking vampire had gotten the best of him. But no time to think about that right now, we had a vampire to deal with. And we had the thing boxed in. An animal backed into a corner is a dangerous one, especially a supernatural apex predator like a vampire. That odd feeling that something was about to happen, as half of my team and the MCB agents scended the stone stairs that lead from the cistern, and into the basement of the church.

“Matt, if you’re about to start praying again, please don’t.” Rocky said, and I heard Matt’s voice cut off mid-syllable.

That odd feeling I had only increased when we entered the basement of the church. There were candles all around the basement, which was where our source of illumination came from. Not the oddest thing to find in a church yes, but It gets weirder. On the far side of the church’s basement, there was a large canopy bed surrounded by candles. From my point of view the whole thing looked sort of like a scene from a real cheesy romance movie, and I just found myself thinking: _What the hell are vampires doing with a canopy bed and a shit-ton of candles?_ I shook my head, deciding that I never wanted to know that … Unfortunately, that was just not in the cards today.

“Jimmi, you might want to come and take a look at this.” From Matt’s tone, whatever it was it did not sound good at all.

“What’s up?” I asked, my tone matching just how uneasy I felt about the whole situation. On the opposite side of this whole creepy candle filled room, was where Matt had called me to, and I sorely wished he hadn’t. There was, well my best description of what I was looking at was some sort of shrine. But wait, this gets weirder. There were pictures everywhere on this shrine, and _all_ of them were of me.

“Oh shit.” I said, as I felt my blood chill. I only knew of one person who would be obsessed with me to this level, and if they were a vampire (and all evidence pointed to it) this was not good news. But it did explain the canopy bed, the candles, and why I felt so uneasy about this whole thing. I felt a shudder go up my spine, right before something hit me in the chest.

It felt like I was hit in the chest by a charging bull. Stars erupted in front of my eyes, in all shades of pretty colors. I was only vaguely aware of the sound of overlapping gunfire, as that was a real powerful shot in the chest I just took. Still, when I was able to get to my feet after blinking away the pretty colored stars in front of my eyes, I saw Thom, Alex, and Kai with their backs to me firing in the direction towards the shrine dedicated to me. Not wanting to be left out of the fight, I raised my rifle, and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened. Confused, I pulled the trigger again, and again nothing happened. I chanced a glance at my AR-15, and found that the barrel, and receiver hand been shattered. “Oh you bitch!”

I unslung the rifle, removed my scope, and tossed the destroyed rifle aside. It was a real shame as that had been the first rifle I had ever owned, but now with what that bitch had done to it, it was pretty much useless now. 

Now was mad. I loved that rifle, now it was gone. Fortunately I had brought my Saiga with me, and while it wasn’t the monster that Milo had given to Owen, this shotgun still packed one hell of a punch. I reached behind me to pull the Russian shotgun around to bring it to bear. My hand had just closed around the Saiga’s handle, when she got around Kai, Thom, and Alex, and got right in my face.

This confirmed our third target was who I thought it was. It also confirmed what I thought about the candles, the bed, obviously the shrine, and especially the odd feeling I had about this whole follow-up of Alex’s. My ex-girlfriend smiled in a way that sent a chill down my spine. It was a smile that could only be given by the supernatural’s most dangerous predator. And she managed to show off those razor sharp incisors in the same smile. “Hello James.”

“Cassandra, why am I not surprised?” I tried making my voice as cold as I could. Cassandra had been my girlfriend from my freshman to senior year in high school, and she was a serious yandere. For those of you who don’t know what that is, a yandere is a certain character in some anime’s that seem sweet and sugary on the outside. But once they become affixed to a certain person, who is normally the main character of said anime, they are not above the most heinous acts known to humankind to end up being with that person. You want an example of a yandere, look at Yukako Yamagashi from _JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure_ , or Yuno Gassai from _Mirai Nikki_. Add to the fact that on top of her being a yandere, Cassandra was also a grade-A stalker (another yandere trait yes, but she took that shit to a whole other level that I don’t want to get into), and she was seriously obsessed with the supernatural. Guess it only made sense that she became a vampire.

“James, don’t even think about it,” Cassandra snarled. I guessed she knew I was going for my Saiga.

“I don’t need to.” I replied, as Kai, Thom, and Alex had their weapons trained on my ex. Matt, Rocky, Creed, Clare, James, and Dimitri as well as the 20 other MCB agents followed soon behind.

“If any of you move, I’ll kill him!” Cassandra snarled, as her fingers closed around my throat in an iron vice ice cold grip. It wasn’t strong enough to choke me, but tight enough that if she wanted to, she could easily snap my neck.

“You let him go right now, or you’re a dead woman.” Matt Snarled leveling his FAL.

“I’m already dead Matthew,” Cassandra replied, turning her attention to him, “drop your weapons or all of you will be dead as well including James.”

“You’re not gonna kill him, you’re obsessed with him!” Matt spat back.

“Oh I’ll easily fix that. Once you’re all dead, I can make James into a vampire like myself, and we’ll spend eternity together.” Cassandra replied, and her tone seemed almost dreamy. Obsessive stalker yandere I had to remind myself, as my right hand slowly let go of my Saiga, and reached for something else.

“You’ll never get that chance!” Matt snarled. “Now you put him down, or I’ll but you down!”

“No Matthew, you put your weapons down or I will-AHHHHHH!” Cassandra screamed, as my katana sliced her right arm off at the shoulder.

“When I told you I never wanted to see you again after graduation, I meant it you bitch.” I snarled, right before my katana took my ex’s head off.

“You alright James?” Matt asked, as I placed my blade back in its scabbard.

“In the twenty years that we have been friends, not once have you ever called me James.” I replied, more shocked at what my best friend had just done than realizing that my ex was a vampire.

“What’s your point?” He asked.

“Don’t do it again … Ever.” I replied.

“You got it brother. And sorry about your rifle. I know you put a lot of love into it.”

“It’s alright, just let me look through your collection of Guns n’ Ammo for a replacement when we get back. Gotta find a replacement and all.” I replied, feeling better now that this particular job was over. 

My family, as well as Matt’s (who weren’t as miffed about Framboise as Matt had thought) avoided the entire team, including Earl’s when we got back. I mean we were trudging through the sewers of Fulton for God knows how long. Even Peratas wouldn’t go near us until every last one of us had showered and changed clothes. I made a point of ditching the ones I had worn when I went into the sewer, I’d buy new clothes later.

I must have spent hours in my shower, at least that’s what it had felt like before I was browsing through Matt’s stash of gun magazines. I went through about half of his three foot high stack (guy hoards gun magazines like they’re Playboy) before I saw the one I wanted.

Fortunately Intimidator was still open when my Mustang pulled into the lot. The bell rang as I pushed the shop door open, and as usual Brian was behind the counter. “Oh Jimmi, what brings you here?”

“I lost my rifle. The first one you sold me.” I replied, as I approached the plexiglass pistol display counter Brian was standing behind.

“Bummer man, that fifteen was a reliable rifle.” He said shrugging. “So you want a replacement?”

“Actually, I wanted to place an order.” I replied smirking as I knew what I was about to order was going to knock him off his feet.

“Alright, well it’s a few months until Christmas, but I can deliver your wishlist to Santa himself.” Brian replied matching my smirk. “So name your poison.”

“The LWRC REPR.”


	11. Chapter 11

By the time that the Police and the 5:00 news crews had rolled around, our team plus the Marshalls and Selene’s were all long gone. Pat had informed Agent Locke exactly what happened when we had finally settled in another hotel, everyone was way too wired after the wolves had come back for another round, so sleep was out of the question. Everyone was glad Alex had turned up when he did, as those wolves hadn’t lasted long against the new firepower. The Large MG3 that James had belonged to Connor, he wasn’t with us at the moment, as he had suffered a few injuries while over in Ireland.

“Lindwyrm messed him up something nasty.” Alex explained, and there was a collective sharp intake of breath concluding with Kai grabbing my hand. Kai was terrified of Lindwyrms, as she had gone up against one before she became a hunter. The funny thing is, Pat’s team had been the ones who had engaged that thing in the first place. When nobody was looking, Kai had stolen a detonator to the C4 that James had placed around the large cavern that the creature was nesting in. She’d spent a year in the hospital, and had walked away with a horrible fear of Lindwyrms to boot. 

“How long is he gonna be out for?” Pat asked concerned about one of his heavy gunners.

Alex grimaced, and shook his head. “His right arm and leg are fucked up, so he might be out for a while.” 

“Damn, might have to pass the word to Earl that we need a replacement.” Pat said, before Kai cleared her throat, giving him a playful scowl.

“Sorry Kai.” Pat said appollogy to Kai, who still had a grip on my hand. “But we are short heavy gunner.”

Thom had caught that small action, and promptly left the room. Something that seemed to bother Alex. “What’s with him?” He asked, jerking his head in the direction his brother walked off in. 

“Oh that, well Kai and Jimmi spent the night together.” Pat explained to his best friend.

“And he’s upset about…?” His eyes rolled, and he let out a very irritated groan. “He still can’t take the damn hint? Especially after Berlin?”

“You guys were in Berlin?” Rocky asked, and Alex nodded. 

“About a month before you guys got here.” He explained. “We were after another vampire, whose given MHI trouble in the past, and always seems to elude capture. No exception that time either.”

“You mean it got away?” Rocky asked.

“Yeah, she’s got a nasty penchant for escape.” Pat growled, and the three of us shared a confused look. “She used to be a hunter like us, up until the Cursed One Incident. You see, a few years before that, she was bitten by an old Nazi General named Jager, who was then the worlds most powerful vampire. By the end of the Cursed One Incident, Jager, the Cursed One, and four other vampires were dead. But she wasn’t.”

“Well who would she be exactly?” Matt asked the question that the three of us were wondering.

“Julie’s mom. Suzan Shackleford.” Pat growled once again, and a shudder went down our spines.

“She’ll show her head again Pat.” Alex said in reassurance.

“And when she does, BANG!” Clare added, punctuating her exclemation by punching her right hand into her left palm.

“Right, so food?” There was an outcry of agreement from the rest of us, as our team leader ordered everything on the room service menu from the new hotel we had relocated to. We were staying in a large penthouse this time, and the only way into the suite, was the elevator. Thankfully, none of the bellhops turned out to be werewolves.

“So how long do you think it’ll be until we get another job?” I asked Rocky, before biting into a slice of pizza.

He shrugged, as he rolled a pistol round on the the table with his index finger. “Might be soon, or sometime next week. I wouldn’t worry too much about it though. I’d worry about those wolves that keep coming after us.”

“Yeah. I know, we’ve only hit one place so far, and if these wolves are as big and bad as we’ve been led to believe, they should have more places for us to hit.” Rocky was quiet, as he thought about what I had said.

“Maybe Earl has been the one doing most of the fighting.” He suggested.

“Or maybe.” Matt said joining us. “They’re really dug in, and difficult to track down.”

“That one makes more sense.” Rocky said, but frowned as he spoke again. “Still, they got smarter. I mean sending in recon?”

“Yeah but then they just threw themselves at us.” Matt replied, frowning just like Rocky. 

“Well think of what one of the Marshall brothers said.” I spoke up. “Not only are these wolves as ruthless as the Sinaloa Cartel, but they have to have a pretty large army. Think about it this way. The pawns always go first in chess. The bigger pieces don’t move until all the pawns are gone.” 

“Well that might be a while, if what was said was true.” Rocky said, getting up and stretching. He took the hollow point he was playing with off of the table, ejected the mag of his 1911, placed the round back into the magazine, and reloaded his beloved sidearm. I got up from where I was sitting at the polished marble counter of the penthouse’s kitchen, and went to find some place to sleep.

I got pulled into a side bedroom, not as grand as the master one, but still rather nice. Still it caught me off guard, and I got free from whoever it was who pulled me in here, dropped low, and swept the legs of whoever it was. They let off a surprised yelp, but sprang back to their feet. And there was a glint of a challenge in Kai’s eyes, as she dropped into a fighting stance. She launched a kick at me, which I caught. I should have known that was just a setup. She hooked her foot around one of my arms, and twisted her body into a roll that sent me sprawling back first onto the small rooms bed. Kah was on top of me a moment later, a smirk of victory on her face.

“I’m guessing this is foreplay for you?” I asked, not bothering to hide the smile on my face.

“You’ll learn to enjoy it.” She said winking, before her lips pressed against mine.


	12. Chapter 12

A few weeks after that fiasco in Miami, Connor wasn’t the only one with an injury. My left arm was wrapped up in a cast from yet another encounter with the wolf pack that wanted Matt and I dead. It was just several hours after the pack had attacked us at our first hotel. Pat wanted to find out how close those wolves were in location to where we were staying. We’d managed to track them to a forest outside of Miami. We’d found them holed up within what looked like some rundown compound, that must have been the home base of some group of rebellious ‘freedom fighters’ in the past. We’d only brought the fight to the wolves one other time, and that was when we had found an underground entrance in the ruins of another old building. It was also when Matt’s beloved FAL was destroyed, and he was determined not to lose another weapon, and to my surprise, Alex shared the same sentiment. Before he’d had Gungnir, he owned a H&K XM8. He had it with him for only two jobs with MHI, before a werewolf had destroyed it. 

Just like the last time we had brought the fight to this pack of wolves, we found another hatch leading underground. James had discovered it while he, Alex, and Clare were sweeping through what looked like an old armory. Thankfully, the door wasn’t boobytrapped, but somehow I kinda wished it was. They were waiting for us. Hundreds of wolves, both transformed and human. We were staring and snarling muzzles, and down the barrels of hundreds of weapons. For a moment we all just stared at one another, a moment that seemed like it lasted hours. Then, our team scrambled for cover behind thick concrete pillars, or overturned tables in an attempt to avoid getting shot. I had gotten behind a large pillar, and had attempted to merge into the concrete in my desperation to stay in cover. Bullets zipped past my head, and tore up the concrete of the pillar I was taking cover behind.

“Grenades!” Pat yelled over the hail of gunfire. “If you have ‘em, use ‘em!”

I didn’t even register dropping my rifle. I grabbed two of the grenades I had on my belt, undid the pins with my thumbs, and tossed both around the left side of the concrete pillar, after counting to three. The grenades sailed through the air, and exploded seconds later, taking several wolves down in an explosion of fire and silver shrapnel. I grabbed my Galil, from where it had come to rest on the ground. I opened up in two and three round bursts, dropping both fully transformed wolves, and those who were shooting at us who had been dazed in the resulting explosions. 

Then a horrible white hot searing pain lanced up my left arm in several places. I was lifted into the air rather roughly, and for the second time in two days, was brought nose to snout with a very angry fully transformed werewolf. If it wasn’t for the white hot pain I was experiencing, I would have felt my blood turn to ice. Then again, that would also be difficult due to a lot of my blood leaking out between the wolves claws. 

“I’m taking you to the Alpha.” It growled.

“You’ll have to get past Kai first.” I groaned, gritting my teeth and trying to fight through the pain.

Although I was right about that wolf having to go through Kai first. I couldn’t see clearly, as my eyes were almost completely shut from the pain. I did become aware that my feet had hit the floor, and a moment later, a pained howl hit my ears. Someone had sliced off the wolf’s hand. And then I heard someone cursing at it in Japanese, and heard something else slice through the air, and something hit the ground with a heavy thud. I felt another series of white hot pains, as someone removed the wolf’s clawed fingers from my arm. I was very lucky that Isabelle was with us. I might have lost my arm if she wasn’t. She’d made a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, and my wounds were dissinfected with a combination of wolfsbane and some high grade medical supplies. 

I’d been confined to our compound since then, listening to Marlyn and Jillian freak out over what happened to my arm, having to answer endless questions about what had happened from both dad and Tony. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family endlessly, but I honestly wished the four of them had off switches. That didn’t stop the team though, a few days after my injury the team went after a Harpy nest in Boston. The Fulani brothers weren’t happy about having to go up against Harpies at all, as they had a nasty encounter with the nasty buggers before becoming hunters. A few days after, it was a wendigo in Wyoming. I felt a shudder go up my spine at the mention of that wendigo. What they are, are well remnants of Native Americans, or settlers who moved out west, who were consumed by a severe lust for food, they turned to devouring human flesh. Wendigos can stay alive for hundreds of years, strong in the daytime, but almost unstoppable at night. They can mask their voice to anything to better lure in their prey, and only have one weakness, which is fire. The wendigo gave our team some trouble, until James doused the ugly son of a bitch in napalm. 

Matt’s M27 came in a week after the wendigo later, and I went with him to Intimidator to pick it up. My left arm was wrapped up in a cast. Isabelle said I would retain full movement in my arm, -something to which I was very grateful for- but it was a full arm cast, and this damn thing wasn’t just heavy, it was itchy as all hell. While Matt filled out the proper paperwork, -apparently hunters could only purchase what was ‘in stock’ at Brian’s store- I browsed the displays, and answered Brian’s questions about what had happened to my arm. Of course with the store being filled with other gun enthusiasts, telling him the truth would result in a very nasty case of acute lead poisoning for the three of us, and any other poor bastard who had been unfortunate enough to catch the conversation.

“That bad huh?” He asked, eyeing my cast.

“If it wasn’t for our medic being there when it happened, I wouldn’t have this arm anymore.” I replied, getting a low whistle from Brian.

“Damn dude that sucks.” Brian said, shaking his head. “Any idea when that cast can come off?”

“Doc says it can come off next week.” I said, breathing a sigh of relief at what Belle had told me a few days ago.

“Gotta itch like a son of a bitch.”

“Oh it does believe me.” 

Something in the pistol display case caught my eye. Something I’d been after for awhile, but finding them thus far had proved to be impossible. Looking for a Smith & Wesson 3rd generation is difficult. Finding a pair is unheard of nowadays. But a matched set? You would have a better chance in winning the lottery.

It was a matching pair of Smith & Wesson 10mm autos. The full sized 1026, and the other was a short barreled 1076. The 1026 hadn’t been a very popular sidearm, apparently due to it featuring the decocking lever used by the Sig Sauer instead of the usual side-mounted safety one normally sees with Smith & Wesson sidearms. The 1076 had seen a little more success, due to its temporary adoption by the FBI in the early 90’s. That being said, there were only a limited number of both guns that had been manufactured, with only a few thousands being made before Smith & Wesson had discontinued their line of 10mm handguns.

“Hey Bri, these two beauties right here.” I said pointing with my good arm to the two pistols that I had practically been drooling over. “When did they come in?”

Brian raised an eyebrow at the 10mm’s I’d pointed to. “Those guys? My uncle owned ‘em for a while and decided he didn’t want them anymore. Only fired a handful of rounds from both.”

“How much?” I asked, an excited jolt shooting through my stomach. 

“I never priced ‘em so make me an offer.”

I thought for a second, trying to do some calculations in my head. “Five thousand for both sound good?”

“Yeah. I can do that.” Brian said, unlocking the back of the display case and setting the two sidearms on the plexiglass. I picked up the full sized 1026, actually surprised that it fit my hand perfectly.

“Did your uncle have these custom made?” I asked, looking at the 1026 in my hand.

“Yeah, he was former FBI. He had that sidearm modified to help compensate for a gunshot wound he suffered to his shoulder.”

“Damn, and he just up and got rid of his two custom sidearms?”

“Well not entirely.” Brian began sighing. “You see, my uncle recently passed away, and don’t look like that.” He added, as I looked at him both shocked and apologetic. “He went peacefully and in his sleep. He left a few things to me in his will, and those pistols were one of the things he wanted me to have.”

“So you decide to sell them for whatever reason?” Matt asked, resting his chin on his hands as he was drawn in by the story Brian was telling.

“Well I’m not much into ten mil pistols, and I thought someone else would be able to get better use out of them then I would. But that pissed my dad off pretty good.” Brian replied, a small smirk playing at the corner of his lips at his last remark.

“And why’s that?” I asked, setting the full sized 1026 back on the glass display case.

“My dad and I had a real big fight a few years back.” Brian began. “That’s the whole reason I have this job here. My uncle got me this job, because he was friends with the guy who used to own this place. My dad was a bit of a gun nut, which was the whole reason behind the argument. See my uncle was going to leave his gun collection to my dad in his will, but he decided to sell a few rarer ones.”

“How does that involve you?” I asked.

“I was the one he sold them to.” Brian replied, the smirk on his face widening. “Dad went ballistic, and I walked out the same night. My uncle wrote my dad out of his will about a week later just to piss him off, and ohhh man was he pissed off when he found out about that.”

At that moment, the small bell above the store’s door rang, and someone entered. A young woman around the same age as Matt and I. Her skin was as dark as Isabelle’s, and her hair was buzzed military style. Her clothing was dark, and it gave her the whole ‘wannabe military’ look. She looked Matt and I over once, before making her way to Brian.

“How can I help you?” Brian asked the newcomer. 

“Someone told me that you can help me out, if I showed you this.” The young woman said showing Brian the same business card that the Morrisons had given to Matt and myself. Matt and I shared a look, and a nod of approval. This new customer was clearly a new hunter.

“What can I get you?” Brian asked, a his signature smile appearing on his face.

The newcomer paused as she looked at the assorted rifles and shotguns on the display shelf behind Brian. To Matt and I, it seemed like she was sizing each and every weapon up, before she had finally made her decision. “The IMI TAR twenty-one.”

“Not a bad choice.” He said taking down the rifle in question. Although that raised a question in my mind. Why would someone who dressed like this purchase a rifle that wasn’t in use by the American military?

The newcomer looked over the Israli weapon, as she took it in her hands. Nodding once, she set it on the plexiglass display counter that showed off Indimidator’s pistol display. “And the Crusader Partisan.”

That was more like it. You couldn’t go wrong with Crusader weapons, and it was something Brian voiced, his smile never wavering. “Alright. I might close early today.” He said, taking down the other requested rifle. 

“And the Remmington eleven-eighty-seven police over there.” She said pointing out the auto loader shotgun.

“Definately closing early today.” Brian said placing the shotgun next to the two rifles. “Anything else I can get you?”

The newcomer crouched down, looking at the handguns behind the plexiglass. She took a long time, as if sizing them up like she had with the rifles and shotguns. “The Beretta six. Both of them.”

“Alright you want ‘em, you got ‘em.” Brian said, taking both of the forty caliber handguns out from behind the plexiglass.

“Done.” Matt said finishing the paperwork for his new rifle, and handing it back to Brian.

“Alright, sweet.” Brian said, placing a hard gun case onto the long clear plexiglass display case. “Well it’s yours man, and take good care of that PSL too.” Along with the M27, Matt had purchased a Romanian PSL battle rifle. Its barrel had been replaced from the standard barrel, to one resembling a Mosin’s. Matt planned on replacing the wooden stock, to a collapsible aluminum one, and had purchased an Acog scope by Surefire for the Romanian rifle. “And Jimmi, you take good care of those pistols now.”

“I’ll let you know how they work out next time I’m in here.” Matt said, taking both gun cases in his hands. I got the door for him, and waved to Brian with my good arm as we left his shop.

“I can’t wait until this damn thing can come off.” I growled, as I clumsily attempted to get my seatbelt on, around my heavy full arm cast. Matt laughed, and lifted my arm up to allow me to finally clip on the seatbelt.

“Well you get to spend time with your family, and a whole lot of time with Kai.” He added, ruffling my hair. He wasn’t wrong about that last part, ever since Kai and I had gotten together in Miami, we’d been … Well seeing a lot of one another, and she preferred to be the dominant one in the relationship. Since that wolf had nearly ripped my arm off, she’d never left my side. Something that Thom hadn’t been too happy about at all. Apparently the two had dated before I joined the team, but Kai had broken things off only a few months before Matt and I got attacked by those five werewolves. Although I did sympathise with him, the new guy dating your ex especially with how long they’ve known one another? How could that not rile someone up? Still, there was something that Kai wasn’t telling me about why she had ended her relationship with Thom. But she said that she didn’t want to discuss why she’d ended things with Thom whenever I asked, so I let it go for the time being.

“Did you really have to bring that up?” I asked, feeling a wave of embarrassed heat wash over me, mixed with a slight pang of guilt.

“Just be glad the rooms are soundproof.” Matt replied, and I felt my cheeks redden.

The next week dragged by agonizingly slow. We’d only gotten one call, and that was in Chicago. A nest of goblins had been screwing with the public. Pat had gone with Dimitri, Rocky, Alex, Clare, James, and Mariah -the woman who we saw in Intimidators purchasing her weapons- and they’d all come back sufficently irritated. Clare was furious with James, as he had killed the goblins by detonating C-4 in a gas station. He was lucky that the station’s lines had long since run dry, but the resulting explosion had turned several cars into metallic skeletons of what they used to be. And everyone was irritated with Mariah, as she had tried to give orders to the other members of the team. 

“I swear,if she tells me what to do one more time, I’m gonna shoot her in the kneecaps.” Rocky growled, when he got back to base, not bothering to say that out of earshot of our newcomer. 

Then my cast was off. It felt wonderful to have full use of both of my arms. Although it was a bit unfair, when Kai had handcuffed my wrists to my bedposts that night. The only downside, was that there were four large circle shaped scars along my arm, from where the wolf had dug its claws into it. Then again, you couldn’t see them anymore thanks to the large tattoo I now had going up my left arm. It was a large wolf, that covered up the scars, whose head ended in a howl on my left pectoral. It was Matt’s suggestion that I get the tat, and I went with the wolf since I believed it was the most appropriate thing, given that it was a werewolf that had given me that injury. Not only had the team said it was a good idea, but my dad to my surprise had approved. So had Marlyn, who had thought tattoos were a waste of money, as they become ruined with age.

“I can’t believe you like it.” I said to her, a few days after the ink had been fully set.

“Well I saw those scars.” She replied, worry in her eyes. “I know I wouldn’t want to be reminded of what had happened every time I looked at those scars.”

“So…” I started slightly surprised at her words. “So you were worried.”

“Of course I was.” She responded matter-of-factly. “You’re my son.”

Words had utterly failed me in that moment. Marlyn, while not my biological mother, had treated me like I was her biological son since the day we had met. She might not have ever said it, since Jillian and Tony were born, and I hadn’t been allowed to see her since my biological mother was an unreasonable bitch. But to hear her say that, truly meant that she saw me as her child.

The moment was interrupted by Pat, who walked into the rec room looking like he had a purpose. “Jimmi, grab your gear. It’s game time, and you’re coming off the bench.”

I made to follow my team leader, but Marlyn grabbed my arm, turning me to face her. “Stay safe James.”

“I will.” I said, and then adding with a smile, and trying to keep my voice from cracking. “Mom.”

I was silent as I placed my armor on, and assessed my loadouts. I already had my Galil, and my Saiga loaded, my full-sized Sig was holstered on on my hip, while the smaller baby Sig went into its holster on my Galco rig. I had made a few recent purchases at Intimidator other than the two 10mm sidearms. Now I had two new full-sized Sig Sauer’s. One was a Sig Sauer Combat tb -or threaded barrel- like my first Sig, it had an under mounted laser sight, and was also sporting a suppressor. The second one was a full custom Sig Sauer Scorpion 1911. One Matt had drooled over, and made no attempt to hide his jealousy over my purchasing it. I now had four sidearms, all of which were holstered on my armor. 

I would have loved to have taken all of my new toys out on my first hunt in weeks, but there was not enough space on my armor for everything to fit comfortably, and still allow me to fully function. I decided to take the new 10mm’s that had belonged to Brian’s uncle. The full sized 1026 was holstered in a low riding hip holster on my left side, that was opposite my full sized Sig Sauer holstered on my right. The smaller 1076 was in a custom galco rig under my right armpit, while my baby Sig went into the holster on my left. My grandpa’s peacemakers were holstered on my belt cowboy-style. SInce my Peacemakers were holstered along my belt, my katana could not fit through it comfortably. So it was now sheathed and strapped along my back. Once all my hardware was secured, I found myself staring at my left hand, and I began clenching it until my knuckles were white. It felt good to be able to use my left arm again, and even better to be able to go out hunting with the rest of the team.

Kai rested a hand on top of my left hand. Even though it was a small gesture, her skin felt very warm to the touch. Her fingers interlocked with mine, and she gave my hand a light squeeze. “Don’t over-exert yourself James.” Was that worry in her voice? 

I smiled in reassurance, lightly squeezing her hand. “I’ll try not to overdo it.” 

“Can it and get to the plane.” Mariah snapped at the two of us.

“Shut up!” Kai and I snapped at the newest addition to our team in Japanese. Kai had been teaching me over the past few weeks I had been confined to the compound due to my injury. I didn’t take well to our newest teammate ordering senior members around. What was up this chick, that made her think she could order us around.

“They’re right rookie.” Alex’s older brother John said holstering his sidearm. A beretta 2fs styled like Albert Wesker’s sidearm from Resident Evil. “Don’t upset the chain of command. A Private doesn’t give orders to the General. They keep their mouths shut, and do what they’re told. Now shut up and get on the plane.”

Mariah looked at John with a mutanous loathing expression, but didn’t say another word, and a moment later quickly made her way out of the armory. There was a long moment where nobody in the armory spoke. We just stared after our new upstart rookie, then we all exhaled a breath nobody realized they were holding. Those who had not finished assessing what they were going to bring on our new job, turned their attention back to their weapons lockers. I also noticed with a slight jolt of fear, that John’s right hand relaxed its grip on his customised sidearm.

“Sooner Connor recovers, the sooner we can get rid of her.” John said in a thick Irish accent. There was a murmur of agreement from a few members of the team.

“Sam might be able to put the fear of God into her.” Pat said, racking back the charging handle of his M4. “I’ll send her down to Boulder Colorado once Connor is back on his feet.” 

“Well did any of us even bother to ask what’s affected her, that gave her such a bad attitude?” Clare asked, as her inspected her Tac 45. “As annoying as her bad attitude is, she’s got a backstory like the rest of us.”

Everyone was stunned into silence for a few seconds. Clare was absolutely right. We’d judged our new team mate unfairly, without even bothering to learn anything about her. I cringed, as I felt a wave of guilt wash over me, and judging by the guilty expressions on everyone’s faces, everyone else was beating themselves up about it too.

“Well there is no use crying about it now.” Alex’s father Lucas said breaking the silence as he loaded a customized Crusader Broadsword modified to serve as a dmr. “Let’s just get this job done.” 

“Speaking of that.” John said, loading a set of 1911’s that looked like the customized 1911’s from the Punisher film into a galco rig of his own. “What is our job anyway?” 

“That.” Pat began, as he sheathed his large Bowie knife into where the sheath was placed upside down on his left shoulder plate. “Is a very good question. Earl called a little while ago, and said he had something for us. He didn’t say what it was, only that he wants all hands on deck.”

“Vampire?” I asked turning to Rocky. 

“Has to be. Can’t think of anything else that can warrant this type of response.” He replied loading a magazine into his 33A2. “Unless we found the Alpha of the pack of wolves that you and Matt pissed off.”

“Oh I would love the chance to put a few rounds into that son of a bitch’s head.” I said to murmurs of agreement. “Get some payback for one of his boys fuckin’ up my arm.”

“Don’t go biting off more than you can chew James.” Kai said, lacing the fingers of her right hand with my left hand.

“Amusing choice of words.” I replied cheekily, but contracted my hand about hers in a comforting manner as we headed for the team’s plane.

Mariah was waiting for us, already seated in one of the seats that were closest to the ramp. She looked different somehow. Her right leg was tapping rapidly, and she was staring at the floor of the plane. It was almost like…

“Nervous rookie?” Pat asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Mariah nodded, and cleared her throat. “I’m afraid of heights, especially flying.” 

“Yeah so am I.” Alex said, digging in a pouch in his armor and offering what looked like a stick of gum. “But this helps.”

“Thanks.” She said nervously, accepting the stick of gum. “But not to be a nudge, could we … Could we please get going.”

“You know I’m with her on that.” Alex said, poping a stick of gum into his mouth.

“Ardeth, get her into the air.” Pat said, once everyone was seated, and the ramp was up.


	13. Chapter 13

Once again, and as usual I fell asleep on our plane. Don’t judge me, long journeys put me to sleep, and we were on a plane with no inflight movie or any other form of entertainment. I don’t remember how long I was out for, but when I came to the other members of my team looked like they were preparing to disembark. 

“How long was I out?” I asked, sitting up straighter in my seat.

“Long enough.” Pat said stretching. “We’re just waiting for clearance from the tower to land.”

“Where are we anyway?” I asked through a yawn.

“Nevada.” Alex replied, shaking his head kinda like a dog shaking off water from its fur. “We’re right over the Vegas Strip.”

“Sweet, our job brings us to Vegas.” Matt said, getting to his feet and retrieving his M27. “The question is why though?”

“That we’re still uncertain about.” Pat replied. “We won’t know until we land.”

“And when exactly is that gonna happen Pat?” Alex asked, and it looked like he was becoming impatient. Not that I could blame him, I’d be antsy too if we were being told to stay in the air for an uncertain amount of time.

“Well technically, we’re an unlisted flight.” Pat replied, grabbing his M4. “It’s gonna take some time to get clearance to land.”

“So call Locke.” Clare said, trying to loosen a crick in her neck.

“I did, but something’s going on down there that’s preventing us from-” Pat was cut off, as our plane tilted down, indicating that we were coming in for a landing. There was a collective sigh of relief, as we descended towards the ground.

“About damn time.” John groaned, slumping back in his seat.

“Hey we still have one in dreamland.” Alex said nodding his head to where Mariah was in her seat. She must have fallen asleep some time after I did.

“I got her.” Clare said, as our plane came to a stop on solid ground. She strode over to Mariah, and lightly shook her shoulder in an attempt to wake her up. 

Mariah woke with a start, obviously surprised that she fell asleep. “Vanessa…?”

“Not my name rookie.” Clare said with a shake of her head. “We just landed, and you were the last one who was asleep. But since we’re on the subject, whos’e Vanessa your sister?”

Mariah was silent, as the engines to our plane slowed down and quieted. “She was my sister. She was … She was killed by a werewolf....”

Everyone was silent, frozen in place as we all knew what was coming. I felt a cold numbness spread throughout my body, then anger spiked through me when Mariah spoke up again. “She was a Marine, tough as nails, and… And that wolf just… Like she was nothing…”

“Jesus H. Christ…” I heard somebody whisper.

“Another wolf came after me.” She said, her hands clenching into fists. “I don’t even remember what happened next, I must have blacked out. But when I came to, the werewolf’s body was lying in a heap on the ground, and I … I had the thing’s head in my hands.”

“Wait, hold on.” Pat said, his tone holding an impressed edge to it. “You ripped a werewolf’s head off?”

“I must have, but I don’t remember it.” Mariah replied. “But my sister…”

“Easy.” Clare said, placing both hands on Mariah’s shoulders. “You don’t have to talk about that.”

“There’s one more thing.” Mariah said, taking a breath to steady herself. “I heard that there was a team of hunters who had two members being hunted by a large pack of werewolves. I practically begged Harbinger to be a part of that team, just so I could…”

“So you could put as many bullets into any werewolf that attacked us.” Pat said.

“Odd’s are high she might get her chance to do just that.” Alex said, as the ramp to our plane lowered.

Agent Locke was waiting just a few feet from where the ramp of our plane touched the tarmac. And judging from the fact that he was decked out in what looked like full S.W.A.T gear he was ready for war. What looked like a full three dozen equally heavily armed and armored MCB agents were fanned out in a semi-circle behind him, all armed with FN F2000 rifles. Locke was the only exception, as he was carrying a Mk 18 CQBR. The Mk 18 is the M4 PDW variant. It has a 10.3 inch barrel, and supports a 20 or 30 round magazine. The rifle was put into production in the late 90’s and put on the market in the early 2000’s. Locke’s however looked like a modified variant of the Colt Commando that was in use in the late 60’s and early 70’s.

“Thanks for rolling out the red carpet Locke.” Pat said as he made his way down the ramp, eying the 30 plus agents behind him.

“Sorry about the long wait to get you clearance to land. Vegas air traffic control was being rather difficult.” Locke replied.

“So how did you get them to co-operate?” Alex asked, stepping down the ramp. Locke smirked, and tapped his right hip holster indicating one of his twin Desert Eagle sidearms.

“And you’re a federal agent.” Alex scoffed.

“I’m allowed to have a little fun every now and then.” Locke replied. “Now let’s get down to business. We have reason to believe that a Vampire has taken up residence inside the Tangiers casino and hotel.”

“And this warrants a full armed response from MHI and the MCB?” Clare asked.

“Evidence shows that the vampire in question is Susan Shackleford.” Locke replied.

I noticed that the veteran members of our team visibly reacted to this news. Their grips tightened around their weapons, and their split second looks of shock quickly turned into scowls cold as ice. 

“I knew you’d react like that.” Locke said speaking up again. “And you’re probably not going to like what I have to say next. Yet evidence says that there is another vampire with Susan.”

“Oh you’re shitting me.” Alex said icily. “There are two of them now?”

“It’s not Ray is it Locke?” Pat asked, shifting his rifle in his arms.

“No It is not Raymond Shackleford, but needless to say that does not make the second vampire with Susan any less dangerous. And there’s something else on top of the something else.”

“Don’t keep us in suspense Locke.” Alex said in a tone somewhere between a groan and a growl.

“There aren’t any Wights.” Locke said darkly.

If I thought the expressions on my veteran teammates faces could not get any darker, I was dead wrong. Apparently the news about no Wights being present where Susan Shackleford and this new vampire had taken up residence, had triggered a nasty memory for the majority of our team.

“Uh, guys what’s going on?” I asked, feeling a wave of embarrassment washing over me.

“It’s a long story.” Pat said. “We’ve dealt with a situation like this a few times before, and each time we thought that someone else was the culprit.”

“Yeah, but that son of a bitch is locked in a deep dark hole.” Alex said.

“And I threw away the hole.” Locke spoke up.

“So then what the hell are we dealing with?” Matt asked. If they’re not Wights, which are always present in a vampire sighting, what the hell are with this Susan and the new vampire with her?”

“A smarter version of a zombie, that up until recently we had no evidence that these creatures existed.” Locke said. “Like a zombie ghouls are reanimated corpses. The exception being that zombies are created by a voodoo priestess, ghouls are created when a vampire doesn’t fully drain their victim.”

“That and they’re more intelligent than a regular zombies. The fuckers partially retain their memories and identity, and if given one they know how to use a gun.” Pat looked to Isabelle in shock, as apparently he’d never heard her curse before.

“And to that end.” Locke began. “I decided to bring in someone who has more knowledge about ghouls than anyone else present.”

As if on cue, and almost for dramatic effect the door to one of the MCB’s SUV’s opened up. Someone dressed in full MHI armor stepped out, but I couldn’t get a good look at his face as it was concealed by a hood. But the veteran members of the team seemed to know him. Pat most of all, as he walked right up to the newcomer like he was a family member he hadn’t seen in years.

“Raven, it’s good to see you brother.” Pat said, and the two embraced one another. “Glad to see you’re out of Appleton.”

“Oh it is good to be out of there.” Raven said. Judging from his voice, he must have been from a northern state from somewhere in New England. “But let’s catch up later, right now we have a job to do and monsters to kill.”

I heard that traffic in Vegas is a pain in the ass, but add in the panic of a terror attack -which is the story the MCB fed to the civilians and the local police- oh sweet Jesus you wanna talk about impossible what with all the people panicking. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people were trying to get away in a tight space like the Vegas Strip.

“This isn’t gonna be easy.” James said from the drivers seat of the SUV him, Kai, Matt, Rocky, and myself were occupying. “Susan is a powerful vampire, and we’re dealing with ghouls that Susan almost definately armed.”

“The question is, why resurface now after staying silent for so long?” Kai asked.

“Well we can ask her that, provided Alex doesn’t put his arm through her.” Rocky said, and I couldn’t help the smirk that crept over my face.

“Damn, MCB have this place locked down tight.” James said, when we arrived at the blockade the MCB had set up. “My guess is they do this the old fashioned way. Block everything off in a ten block radius, heavy guns every ten feet. Whatever is in there, isn’t coming out alive.”

“Then let’s go in there and end it.” Rocky said opening the rear drivers side door.

“Right, forgot he doesn’t like vampires.” Matt said following Rocky a second later. 

Turns out James was right. The MCB had a 10 block zone quarantined off, with the Tangiers dead center in the quarantine zone. There were hundreds of heavily armed MCB agents, S.W.A.T officers, and U.S. Armed forces personnel. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised with that last one. The MCB had reported this as a terror attack, of course they’d be here. The road was blocked off from sidewalk to sidewalk with MCB vehicles each sporting a mounted minigun complete with gunner. The soldiers were eyeing our hardware suspiciously, and I caught a few whisperings of what armed civilians were doing here.

“This way.” Locke said, walking towards a large tent that was obviously a command center. We made to follow locke, but another agent held us back. 

“Team leaders only.” He said rather coldly.

“What are you talking about? ‘Team leaders only’? Who else is here?” James asked, drumming the fingers of his left hand along the slider of his Benelli.

The agent jerked his head to his right, and we followed his gesture to where another two teams had congregated. One team I recognised as the one that Earl Harbinger himself led. I wasn’t so sure about the other team of some 20 or so hunters, I did however take note that this team had about the same number of hunters, just like our team consisted of some 20 plus. I made a mental note to ask someone about that, as a third team consisting of another 20 plus hunters joined the first two. One hunter broke away from the group, and made his way towards the command tent. The guy was about a head taller than Pat, had a large walrus moustache, and wore a long duster coat over his armor and a cowboy and on top of his head. 

“‘Scuse me kid.” The large hunter said as he approached me. “I gotta get to whatever meetn’ Locke’s set up.”

“Oh, sorry.” I said stepping to the side. I didn’t even realize that I was standing in the way.

“Hm, ain’t you one of Pat’s boys?” He asked, his brow creased as he thought. “Gotta pissed off pack a wolves chasin’ after ya?”

“Yeah that’s me…” I replied, smiling awkwardly.

“Pat tell you he was on my team ‘for he was leadin’ his own little band?”

“Wait, if you were Pat’s former team leader… You’re Sam Haven.” Matt said, joining the small conversation. 

“Yeah the one and only monster huntin’, ass kickin’, name takin’ Sam Haven. Now I gotta get to this little meetn’ of Locke’s so we can go put a boot up Susan’s and her new boy toy’s ass.”

“I like him.” Matt said, as we joined the group of hunters that comprised three other teams. 

“Yeah. The guy doesn’t seems like he’ll take any shit.” Rocky said, as Sam brushed past the MCB guards and into the command tent. “I even think the MCB agents are scared of him.”

“So how long do you think it’ll take them in there?” Mariah asked, as she stepped up to join our conversation. Rocky regarded her coldly, probably still miffed about her attempting to order him about like she was his superior. Matt elbowed him in the arm, not enough to hurt, but enough to tell him to ease up on our rookie.

“Hopefully not long.” Rocky replied. “I’m itching to get in there, and put my rifle barrel down those vampires throats.”

“Well just try not to shoot me in the kneecaps, while you’re turning those vampires into undead hamburger.” She replied, causing me and Matt to snort in laughter. Maybe Mariah wasn’t so disagreeable after all.

“Let’s hope we get in there soon.” I said, once I stopped laughing. “The soldiers are giving us some real odd looks, same as S.W.A.T. I think it’s only a matter of time before someone says something.”

“Or does something.” Mariah supplied. “They all seem jumpier than usual. False report about the terror attack or not, they seem more on edge than normal for reacting to what they were told happened.”

“And that begs the question, did something else like this happen here?” Rocky asked, right before Pat, Sam, Harbinger, and another hunter I had never seen before stepped out of the command tent. He kinda reminded me from Captain Price from Call of Duty with his build and facial features, all the way to his well trimmed salt and pepper beard. This guy was carrying a shortened suppressed FAL similar to Matt’s old rifle. It was sporting an undermounted launcher, and an EOTech halo sight similar to the one on Pat’s M4.

“Still wouldn’t there be better targets for whoever this vampire is to chose from?” I asked as Pat approached. “I mean there’s The Hard Rock Cafe, The MGM building, The Pyramid, hell even that Eiffel Tower replica.”

“I said the same thing Jimmi.” Pat said, as he and the other team leaders regrouped with us. 

“So what’s the play?” Alex asked, loading an explosive shell into his G3’s underbarrel.

“The situation’s worse than we thought.” Pat began. “Susan’s ghouls are spreading out. They’ve already covered half the distance to the blockade.”

“We’re looking at a real fight just to get to the casino aren’t we?” James asked, rolling a shell between his fingers.

“Yeah we are.” Pat replied.

“Perfect.” James said with a wicked smirk, and loaded the shell he was rolling into his Benelli.


	14. Chapter 14

“Damn they are ugly.” Matt said, looking through the scope of his rifle. We were three blocks away from the blockade the MCB had set up. The ghouls Susan and this unknown vampire had created were in sight, but out of range to most of us. There were were about 200 of us, some 60 plus hunters, and the rest of our numbers consisting of Locke and his heavily armed agents. The plan was to insert from the north, south, east, and west. Drop the ghouls, move into the casino, and take out Susan and the unknown vampire.

“How bad?” I asked, not having a powerful enough scope to get a good look at the ghoul’s faces.

“See for yourself.” Matt said, handing me a small scope that I recognised as the one that was mounted on Matt’s old FAL.

What I saw made me very glad I had not eaten anything within the past few hours, or else I would have been tasting it all over again. Thier flesh was decaying and a sick grey color. Pat was right about Susan arming her little army. They were armed to the teeth with a various assortment of .308 rifles, so we were deifinately in for a fight. But the thing that sent a chill up my spine were the eyes. They were a horrible shade of a vivid -and if you can believe this- glowing purple.

“Oh man they are ugly.” I agreed, still trying to not vomit.

“Keep it.” Matt said, when I handed him his old scope back.

“We could drop ‘em right now.” Thom said from the opposite side of the street, having set up his custom EBR to rest on the top of a US Postal Service mailbox. His right index finger was barely touching the rifle’s trigger.

“Easy for you to say kid.” Terry Creed said. He’d taken cover behind a parked Mercades S-class, and was just chancing glances at the wall of undead flesh that was slowly making its way towards us. I noticed like the team leader I saw come out of the command tent with Pat, Sam, and Harbinger, Creed had grown a full beard, yet hadn’t had time to trim it, so it looked kinda scraggly. “You’ve got a real powerful rifle. The rest of us would have a difficult time getting a head shot off.”

“So the same way you kill a zombie is the same way you kill a ghoul?” I asked from behind my cover in the doorway of what seemed to be a strip club.

“Yeah, but I’d rather be fighting zombies than ghoules.” Creed replied. “At least zombies can’t shoot back.

“I can still drop ‘em.” Thom said, his index finger curling around his rifle’s trigger. “Let me drop ‘em.”

“Negative Thom.” Pat said, from his own cover behind a large H2 Hummer. “You’d give away our position.”

“Raven.” Pat said into his com. “Drop these sons of bitches.”

Something whistled past us, and caught one of the ghoules dead center right between its eyes. Its head snapped back, as it went rigid and collapsed to the ground with a disgusting meaty smack. If I hadn’t been so grossed out over the disgusting appearance of these things, I might have cracked a smile over the way that ghoul dropped.

The ghoules turned to look at their downed comrade. It’s hard to imagine those things expressing anything, but from my position it looked for a moment like they were shocked. That was until another of their number dropped.

“Arrows.” I heard Matt say. He was looking through the high powered scope of his rifle, and had a good view of the Ghoules from his position. Or at least a better view than most of our team. “This Raven guy is using arrows.”

I brought up the scope from Matt’s old FAL, and dialed up the magnification. Matt was right, there was what looked like an oak shaft protruding from right between the eyes of the first ghoul, and another in the right temple of the second. I thought something was odd when I didn’t see any weapons on Raven when he came out of Locke’s SUV. Now I realized that his bow and quiver were still inside the vehicle.

“Okay this guy is good.” I said as Raven fired a third, and then a fourth arrow from somewhere behind us. If it was possible for these things to be confused, they sure as hell were now. They couldn’t tell who was killing them off, or where the arrows were coming from.

“Alright, Raven it’s time to stir up the hornet’s nest.” Pat said, as Raven dropped a fifth ghoul. “Everyone get set to come out swinging.”

“Alright. Time to kick some undead ass.” Matt said, flicking the safety off on his M27.

“What did he mean by-?” A louder whistle cut me off in mid-sentence, and I almost jumped when a surprisingly loud explosion vaporized about a dozen ghoules. It turns out that explosive tipped arrows really did exist. “Nevermind!”

I heard Matt’s rifle chirp, even over the sound of the overlapping gunfire including my own. Given that I was crouching right next to him, having rolled from my cover to get a better angle. Everyone was firing in either semi-auto or in short three to four round bursts. The ghoules dropped like flies, but it was real difficult from this far down range for me to get a clear shot to the head, even with the Trijicon RMR reflex sight I had mounted on the top of my Galil.

“I should really think about upgrading my scope!” I yelled over the sound of the overlapping gunfire. “Six hundred forty buck sight, and trying to draw a bead on these sons of bitches is turning out to be a real pain in the ass!”

“Maybe you should think about getting another rifle!” Matt called out, as we ducked to avoid returning fire, and to reload our weapons. “Maybe a Colt or a Remington!”

“Or upgrade your scope!” John interjected, transitioning his own scope -an EOTech EXPS3-4 holographic- and his firing mode on his HK 417 to better serve as a marksman rifle. John then went into a prone position, before he took aim and pulled the trigger. More ghoules dropped, but they were a literal wall of undead flesh. A wall of undead flesh that was very well armed, and was returning fire. “Damn that was too close!”

I whirled around to see John taking cover in the same entranceway I was. He’d just ejected his spent magazine when several bullets bounced off of the sidewalk where the elder Morrison brother had been seconds before. “What the hell!? How’d you get here, when you were there just a half second ago!?”

“Bullets moved slow.” John replied, reloading his rifle, and racking the charging handle back to chamber the first round in his magazine.

“Bullshit they moved slow!” Matt countered, taking cover behind the same S-class Terry Creed was using. “You moved faster!”

“Same speed that Alex had when he fought that vampire on our first job.” I said to myself, as I recalled him taking on that vampire. Alex had moved faster than that vampire, and had been strong enough to put his fist through that vampire’s chest. And shortly after, he’d ripped the top half of a werewolf’s head off. Then I remembered what Pat had said the day after our first job. “You’re a hybrid, just like Alex. Your reflexes are faster than a vampire’s, so you were able to see those bullets coming, and get out of the way in time.”

“Got it in one Jimmi.” John said nodding, but jerked his head out of the way a second later dodging an incoming bullet. “Alright, let’s flank ‘em.”

I jerked my head to the side, suggesting to John we should go through the strip club. John nodded, and motioned to Rocky, and Mariah. He touched his finger to his ear, activating his com. “Pat, taking three flanking left.”

“I’ve got you covered.” Matt said, popping out of cover and firing at the wall of undead flesh so that Rocky and Mariah could move up.

“You know, that is the first time I’ve ever been shot at.” Mariah said, as she took point while we moved through the strip club. I rolled my eyes, half amazed and half exasperated that the club's music was still playing out of the large speakers scattered throughout the place. Some sort of cover of _Careless Whisper_. “That is a terrifying experience.”

“I was a Ranger for ten years. I did three tours in the Middle-East, and got shot twice.” John said, bringing up the rear of the small line. “You’re not alone in being terrified of being shot at.”

“Vanessa would have liked you.” Mariah replied, slowly opening the back entrance to the strip club. “It’s clear. I’ll bring up the rear, James you go.”

“It’s Jimmi.” I corrected lightly, before passing her and heading out into the empty back alley. “Only my family, and my girlfriend call me James.”

“And I don’t think your sister would have liked me.” John said, once he had filed out of the club. “Getting shot isn’t a heroic thing.”

“Not what I meant.” Mariah replied, as we moved forward, the sounds of combat still deafening even while not being in the thick of it. “You were being honest. That’s what she would have liked about you. Your honesty.”

We were silent after that, as we moved through the alley. We stopped at every corner making sure no hostiles were waiting to surprise us. While two of us cleared the corners, the other two moved ahead, and covered the others as they joined us. It probably took about a minute to cover a distance of two blocks, but it felt so much longer with our adrenaline pumping.

“Alright, we can flank from here.” John said, as he peered around the corner of the back of what must have been a bar of some sort.

“John.” I began. “Can’t we split? Two stay here, two go another block over?”

“That’s risky Jimmi.” John countered, running his thumb over the firing mode/safety switch of his 417.

“It can pay off though.” I replied. “We need to get through these ghoules, and we have two vampires to deal with. The more ground we cover.”

“The more ammo we can conserve.” John finished. “That’s good thinking Jimmi. Alright, Rocky you go with Jimmi. Mariah will stay here, hit ‘em from this side and push ‘em back to you.”

“You two be careful.” Mariah said, before Rocky and I moved up another block.

“Pat.” I spoke into my com. “We’re two blocks over. Rock and I are moving up another block, John and Mariah, are gonna push hostiles towards us.”

 _“Copy.”_ Came Pat’s reply in my ear. _“You guys be careful.”_

“Hey Jimmi, I gotta tell you something.” Rocky said, as the two of us got into position.

“Can it wait until we finish this?” I asked, trying to control my breathing, as I raised my Galil. Mariah and John were right. Even though I had been shot at before, it was a terrifying experience that I could not understand how the other members of the team dealt with it.

“If we don’t die.” Rocky replied with a dry chuckle. “You ready?”

“No.” I scoffed in reply, noting a nervous edge in my voice that wasn’t there before. “But let’s just kill the monsters and get paid alright?”

I brought my rifle up, to put my scope’s reticle onto the head of one of the ghoules that was shooting -or attempting to shoot- at our teammates. Time seemed to slow, as my finger curled around my Galil’s trigger. One, two, three .30 caliber rounds sliced through the air, and hit the ghoul i was aiming at in the side of its head. The remnant of what had once been a living human crumpled to the asphalt, firing its weapon into the street as it fell. I’d already moved to another target by the time the ghoul dropped. I repeated this, until my magazine ran dry. I hit the release, and had barely registered fishing a fresh magazine out of my chest pouch, and loading it into the mag port, before I was firing again.

I heard my magazine click empty, and ducked around cover to reload. I felt my stomach drop out, and my blood chill. Several ghoules were shuffling along the opposite end of the alley towards us rifles leveled. My Galil was empty, so I let it fall allowing the sling to catch it. My right hand flew towards my full-sized Sig, the sidearm cleared its holster, its under mounted laser sighting painted a target on one ghoules left knee. I squeezed the trigger, and the ghoul dropped. I quickly put another round into the things head a split-second after the tiny red dot shined in the things left eye.

“Rock, hostiles on our six!” I said, my voice rising an octave in my surprise that we were being flanked. I shot another ghoul in the knee, then shot it in the head when it collapsed to the ground from its first gunshot wound. Rocky whirled around, dropping his rifle and transitioning to his sidearm in the same motion. His first shot caught a ghoul in the eye, his second and third caught another in the abdomen and the side of its head. We rolled out of the way, as that ghoul fired its rifle as it dropped, sending bullets up the alleyway, and shredding some of its -could you even call them friends in this situation?- in the process.

“Jimmi get down!” Rocky growled, aiming his sidearm at me. Time froze as my mind raced, and I put things together. My eyes widened a split-second later, and I hit the deck right before Rocky let off a shot from his custom 1911. Something heavy hit the ground, followed by something else when Rocky let off a second shot. I rolled onto my back, leveling my sidearm. I noticed in that small moment between taking aim, and firing my sidearm, that this ghoul was wearing a Tom Brady jersey. I groaned in disgust, and lowered my Sig a few feet. I fired three shots into the ghoules crotch, and it all but flew face first onto the pavement. I raised my Sig, and caught the ghoules partner in the right eye. The right side of the ghoules head exploded onto the side of another building along the alleyway, before it too collapsed into the pavement. I slowly got back to my feet, and shot the last round in my Sig’s magazine into the back of the ghoules head that was wearing the Tom Brady Jersey.

“Anyone flanking, watch your six. Ghoules are in the alleyways.” I spoke into my com, the empty magazine from my Sig clattering to the ground. 

“That was terrifying.” Rocky sighed, his head resting against the back of the building he was using for cover. He ejected, and checked his sidearms magazine, tossing it aside when he saw it was empty. 

“Tell me about it.” I replied, loading a fresh magazine into my Sig, and bringing the slider forward from its locked back empty position. “Thanks for the save.”

“You would do the same thing for me.” Rocky said, holstering his 1911, and reloading his 33A2.

“I’m not so sure about that.” I replied smirking as I reloaded my Galil, noting that my voice still had a slight quiver to it.

“Smartass.” Rocky scoffed, as we looked around cover rifles leveled. There were more ghoules in the main street, which made me groan out of irritation. I raised my rifle, zeroing in on one ghoules head. Like I had a few minutes ago, I burst fired into the larger horde of ghoules, quickly snapping from target to target until this magazine like the first two clicked empty. I hit the release, and slammed a fresh one into the now empty mag port. I zeroed in on a new target, only for the ghoul to drop before I had a chance to fire. I blinked in surprise, and zeroed in on another target, only for that ghoul to drop to the ground before I had a chance to yet again pull the trigger. 

“Someone’s stealing my kills.” I scoffed, as a third ghoul dropped to the ground before I had the chance to drop it myself.

“Yeah mine too.” Rocky said, as ghoules began to drop in larger numbers. The two of us looked at one another, as realization set in. The team was moving up, and thinning out the horde. I jerked my head, suggesting we move up to the main street, to which Rocky nodded. Our rifles were leveled, and we fired in short three and four round bursts, aiming for hostiles before anyone on our team could drop them. It was only about twelve feet to the main street from the alleyway, but it felt like a longer distance while in the midst of combat. Adrenaline has a funny way of affecting how time moves, when its coursing through your veins like water out of a fire hose.

“Four mags left.” I said, reloading as we reached the space between the main street and the alleyway. There were no more ghoules in the street by that time, at least none that were still standing. Twitching, yes. Standing, no. I racked the charging handle back, as Terry Creed, and Lucas Morrison appeared from the opposite alleyway across the street. Lucas signaled to move onto the main street, and the four of us moved at the same time. I went first crouching low, with Rocky going high covering me. Terry Creed mirrored my movement on the opposite side of the street, and Lucas mirrored Rocky. There were more Ghoules in the street, yet they were too far away to do much of anything.

“I think their regrouping.” Rocky said, stepping up to my right. His rifle was lowered, as John and Mariah joined us. "Five mags left."

“They’ve gotta be regrouping.” I said bringing up Matt’s old Trijicon scope to get a better look. “Yeah, If that’s the Tangiers up ahead, then they’re definately regrouping.”

The rest of the team moved up, weapons lowered, right before Locke and several hundred -or that’s what it looked like- heavily armed MCB agents came up behind us.

“Good work Patrick.” Locke said, his voice holding a rather hard edge to it.

“Thanks Locke.” Pat replied. “But Jimmi here probably saved everyone with his call.”

“I heard that.” Locke replied, tapping the com in his left ear, as bursts of gunfire came from the alleyways around us. Our weapons snapped up, and fingers were touching triggers. At least our teams weapons were up. “Relax, some of my men are clearing out the alleys, and evacuating anyone in the vicinity.”

"What about the other teams?" Isabelle asked. She placed her boot onto the head of a ghoul who was still twitching, and with a sickening snapping crunch, forced the ghouls head to the right, and it stopped twitching for good this time. "We need a status update with them." 

"Agreed." Locke said before placing his left index finger to his his ear. "All teams check in."

_"Recker here. Looks like the hostiles have pulled back to the casino."_

_"This is Haven. Reck's right, ugly son's o' bitches 'r regroupin'."_

_"Harbinger checking in. It's not gonna be easy getting into that damn casino now."_

"Locke!" A new voice barked. all of us, hunters and agents including the man in question turned to see a man in a military dress uniform quickly approaching us. "My men are taking over this situation. I want your men, and these mercenaries out of here, and back behind the blockade now."

"So that's why that meeting in the command tent was for team leaders only." Alex said, sizing the man up in an almost nonchalant manner. "There was a four-star general here."

"Yes there is." The general barked at Alex. "There is a highly dangerous terrorist in that casino, and I won't risk civilian cowboys killing that target, before the US Government gets a chance to interrogate him. Now pull your men back, and get these cowboys out of here."

"Why don't you make us get out of here grandpa." Alex scoffed.

The man rounded on Alex, anger etched onto his face. "Do you want to spend the rest of the night in the brig son?"

Alex took the sling of his custom G3, and handed his weapon off to Clare. He strode up to the general, getting right in his face. And despite being shorter than the other man, in this instance, Alex seemed to tower over the general. "I would love to see you try that. Go on, I'll wait."

There was a few seconds where nobody spoke or moved, including the general who Alex was currently face to face with. I saw the man's had twitch as if he was longing to go for Alex's Beretta. The general's hands then clenched tightly, as if he thought about taking a swing at Alex. Of course with what I saw when Alex fought that vampire on my first hunt, that could be the biggest mistake this man could ever make.

"Alright, that's enough." Locke said, stepping between the two men. "General, get your ass behind that blockade, or I will have _you_ thrown in the brig. Alex, as entertaining as it would be to watch you dismantle this man, let's try not to piss off a man who has a direct line to the President."

“Alright then.” Pat began, trying and failing to hide a satisfied smirk as he lowered his rifle. “Let’s move up, and finish this.”

“Hold on Patrick.” Locke said. “Conserve your ammo, and let me and my men handle this. We’ll take out the defensive perimeter, and set up a perimeter of our own. Once we do that, you and the other hunters can move in, and take out Susan and this unknown vampire.”

“Alright Locke.” Pat nodded. “Give ‘em hell.”

“All agents move up.” Locke barked into his com. “Secure a perimeter. Terminate with extreme prejudice.”

Locke and his agents moved up quicker than I thought was possible. But we weren’t just going to stand around twiddling our thumbs. We moved up about a hundred feet behind the agents, our rifles leveled just as the MCB agents were. 

“Remember, conserve your ammo.” Pat said. “Let Locke and his men handle this.”

Not two seconds after Pat said that, did the MCB agents open up the defending Ghouls. Our team scattered into cover, as the MCB advanced slow as a glacier while still firing their weapons. There was a lapse in gunfire, and the wall of agents slightly opened. I realised in that moment that to conserve ammo, Locke had the front line of his agents open fire. Once they ran out ammo, the agents at the front of the formation would move to the back to reload, and the agents in the second row would open fire on the horde.

“Oh they’re good.” I remarked from behind my cover of a large hummer limo.

“Yeah, they’re real good.” Matt said, using the same limo as cover. “Hang on … Did you feel that?”

I did feel something. And that something was the limo itself. Matt and I shared a look of shock. Someone was in there, and they must have been scared out of there mind. I gestured to Matt to cover me, as I moved to one of the doors at the back of the large luxury vehicle. There was a horrible sound of terrified screams when I opened the vehicle’s door. Sure the scream was grating, but it was a bit of a relief to know that whoever was cowering in here was still human, and very much alive.

“Whoever’s in there, calm down.” I called over the gunfire. “We’re here to help.”

“Are you the army?” A terrified female voice called from inside.

“Something like that.” I called in response. “I need you to stay calm, I’m gonna come inside.”

“That’s what she said.” Matt remarked, and I had to hold back a laugh as I entered the luxury vehicle. 

There were several attractive women in typical expensive dresses, all huddled together on the far end of the limo. There were looks of terror etched on their pretty faces, and all of them whimpered slightly when they saw me. 

“Anyone hurt?” I asked, flicking the safety on my Galil on. They all shook their heads in response. 

“We heard screams.” One woman in a black dress, and bleached blond hair said in a quivering voice. “Our driver bailed, when he heard the first shots. We didn’t know what to do, so we just shut the doors and hoped nobody would find us in here.”

“Well you’re safe now.” I replied, smiling in a comforting way. “When the shooting stops, someone’s gonna get you out of here. Until then, you stay here. It’s the safest place for you.”

“What’s going on in there?” Matt asked, as I came out of the limo a second later.

“Five women, all freaked out, no injuries.” I replied closing the door to the vehicle.

“Good looking?” Matt asked, taking a questioning glance at the limo.

“Not my type.” I replied, smirking. “I have a preference for gun wielding, Japanese women.”

“I didn’t know you cared James.” Kai said jokingly from where she was crouched in the entrance to what looked like a very expensive bar.

“When’s the wedding you two?” Matt asked, as the agents switched so those at the front of the formation, could switch to the back and reload their weapons.

“We could do it right here James.” Kai said, still in that joking tone.

“What, get married by and Elvis impersonator?” I asked, now unable to keep the laugh out of my voice.

“It was worth a try _koibito.”_ Kai replied, winking.

Our attention snapped to the agents before anyone could say anything else -of course, that didn't stop the burning in my cheeks-. They’d stopped firing, which meant they’d cleared out the hostiles surrounding the Tangiers casino. I flicked the safety off of my Galil, and slowly stood up. Everyone on our team was looking at one another, all wondering if Locke and his agents had cleared the area since the gunfire had stopped.

“Area’s clear.” Locke said, moving to the back of the formation to speak to Pat. “We’ll stay out here, and establish a defensive perimeter. Nothing but hunters and agents get in or out.”

“Locke.” I began, and the agent in question focused his attention on me. “There are five women, all scared shitless in here.” I gave the limo a few thumps with the side of my left fist, causing the women inside to scream in fright.”

“Alright, my men will get them out.” Locke replied.

“Right then.” Pat said, flicking the safety off of his rifle. “Let’s do a mag check, then we get in that casino.”


	15. Chapter 15

“Four mags left for my rifle.” I said examining my rifle. “I’m full for my Saiga. I have ten mags all together, eight standard two drums. I’m not running out of ammo for my sidearms anytime soon though.”

“I’ve got five left for my rifle.” Rocky began not taking his eyes off of the casino. “I have an assortment of shells for my shotgun, and a full two dozen mags for my 1911.”

“Five … and a half left for me.” Matt said inspecting the magazine he had ejected from his M27. “My Benelli is full up and ready to rock. Tac forty-five’s are good to go too.”

“I have half a box currently loaded, and several more in reserve.” Kai began, running a hand along her M249 Para. In total she had about seven hundred rounds for her primary weapon. “My backup, and sidearm have yet to be touched.”

“Alright, alright.” Pat said, and it was clear from his tone, he wanted to get into that casino ASAP. “Let’s focus on primary ammo. We’ll worry about secondary and sidearms inside.”

“I have five left.” John said. “Six counting the one loaded in here.”

“Yeah, five here too.” Terry Creed said, and I was starting to see a pattern here.

“Four and a half in my UMP.” Isabelle said inspecting the magazine. So much for that pattern.

“I’ve got five like almost everyone else.” Clair said, and I noticed that she’d switched to her Remmington ACR instead of going with her Scar PDW. “Well fifteen counting the ten I have for the Scar.”

“Kid’s need to learn how to conserve your ammo.” Lucas said, with a slightly smug grin on his face. “I’ve got seven in total, and.” He looked over his shoulder at an old fashioned M16 fitted with an extended magazine. “Well we don’t really need to count the number I have for that now do we?”

“Five left as well.” Dimitri said in a clipped tone. “I can switch to my Dragunov if need be.”

“Do I really need to specify how much I’ve got, with how much I’m packing?” Alex asked. The guy wasn’t kidding either. He had that customized G3 he called Gungnir in his hands, which he had loaded with a drum magazine. There was also the G36 he had loaded with its respective drum, and he had an assortment of standard and drum magazines on the tac vest on his armor. That was aside from the Spaz 12, and the assorted shells.

“Uh, no. Let’s not go there.” Pat replied. “Ardeth, Farid?”

“The same. Five left like everyone else.” Ardeth replied.

“I have nine.” Farid said. “Rather difficult to get a headshot off with a smaller firearm.” He wasn’t kidding about that. Farid was packing an H&K MP7, which didn’t have the effective range everyone else’s did. Everyone, Isabelle being the exception, had rifles that could clear 1,000 feet easy. Farid’s MP7 only had an effective range of 656 feet. To give you an example, let’s say a seasoned quarterback can throw a football endzone to endzone. A rookie quarterback would probably only get it just past the 50 yard line. Not to say that’s not a good toss, it just needs work. Farid’s choice of a primary sidearm wasn’t bad, but I really thought that he should upgrade to something else.

“I’ve got a couple hundred shells for my Belelli, and if all else fails, I have Plan B at the ready.” James said, jerking his thumb to the large duffle bag he had strapped over his right shoulder.

“Let’s try to avoid going to Plan B until we absolutely need to.” Pat replied, eyeing the large bag warily. 

“You got it boss.” James replied.

“Alright, everyone good?” Pat asked, and we all nodded in affirmation. “Mariah you good?”

“I’m ready.” Our newest teammate said. “I’ve got fifteen mags at the ready. Five left for my TAR, and ten for my Broadsword.”

 

“Alright then, Dimitri, post up there on the roof.” Pat said, motioning to the roof of a large luxury hotel. “Thom, same building middle floor. Raven.”

“Look Pat.” Raven said, as he approached our team leader. “I’d go with you, but I only have seven arrows left, plus I don’t have any of my shit.”

“Thought you would say that.” Pat replied. “Dimitri, bring it up.”

In all the confusion, I didn’t even realize that our team’s original marksman had a large duffle bag just like the one similar to our demo guy, which was strapped over his left shoulder. The large unhappy looking Russian removed the large duffel’s strap from over his left shoulder, and tossed it at Raven’s feet.

“Oh you cannot be serious.” Raen scoffed, as he knelt down and unzipped the duffel. I swore I almost fell forward in jealous shock, when Raven brought out the barrel of a Mosin Nagant bolt-action rifle. “This is my shit.”

“Yeah, that’s your shit.” Pat said smirking. “Get your gear set, post up on the north side of that roof.” 

“You got it.” Raven put the Mosin’s barrel back into the large duffel, and set off towards the intended building to set up. As Dimitri and Thom broke away from the team, I noticed Thom had dark scowl on his face. My guess was that it had something to do with my relationship with Kai. I turned my attention to her, and jerked my head ever so slightly in Thom’s direction. She gave an almost imperceptive shake of her head, indicating that now was not the time to discuss what was going on. 

“Alright, we’re gonna split into smaller groups, sweep through the cassino, then move up into the hotel.” Pat said, checking the magazine loaded into his M4. Seemingly satisfied, he loaded the magazine into his rifle, and racked the charging handle back. “I hate to say this, but we’re gonna have to assume that everything in there is a threat. The prime targets are Susan and this vampire she created, so try to conserve your ammo. A lot of you guys know this, but for the four of you that don’t, Susan is a highly dangerous threat, and a high priority target. If you find her, don’t hesitate to pull the trigger.”

“Nervous?” Rocky asked, as we stacked up at the front door.

“Yeah, you?” I asked, as I could feel my heart knocking against my ribcage.

“I’m scared shitless.” He replied looking over his shoulder at me. It was just like our first hunt, his face was pale like all the blood had been drained from it. Kinda fitting, in a disturbing sort of way seeing as how we were going after a vampire.

“Yeah same here. And it’s not the fact that we’re about to get into a shootout with a bunch of ugly undead fucktards.” I replied, and I thought I heard a dry chuckle come from Rocky. 

“Everyone ready?” Pat asked. His sunglasses that he usually wore on his forehead, were down over his eyes. 

“No.” I said under my breath.

“I heard that Jimmi.” Pat said. “Don’t worry, I’m not ready for this either.”

“That’s a relief.” I remarked softly. A small relief, but a relief nonetheless. And then that feeling of relief vanished, and my stomach clenched when Pat held up his left hand with three fingers pointed up. Then it was two, then one. 

We breached as one, and had about oh I’d say five seconds -ten with adrenaline- to take in the scene and all the firepower that was aimed at us. From what In those five seconds I had to register what was going on, there must have been over a thousand ghoules just on the first landing alone. Everyone then dove for cover a split-second before the ghoules opened up on us. Matt and I ended up taking cover behind one of the blackjack tables, and we had just made it in time too as .30 caliber bullets occupied the space we were in a second before.

“Jesus that was way too close!” Matt yelled over the sound of the overlapping gunfire. 

“You see anything other than decaying flesh, purple eyes, and bullets?” I asked, jerking my head to the left to avoid the splinters that came off the leg of the blackjack table when a bullet splintered a part of it. 

“Yeah, buy-in on the table is one hundred thousand. Or two werewolves worth of chips.” Matt replied.

“Besides the buy-in? You know, like anywhere else we can go for cover?” I asked, as a trio of bullets tore more wood away from the table we were using as cover. “This table isn’t gonna last much longer!”

“Slot machines are looking better than this thing!” Matt yelped, as a round penetrated the table and zipped right past his left ear.

“Slot machines?”

“Slot machines!”

Matt dove out of cover, and made a break for the slot machines while I provided covering fire, while really trying to not get shot myself. Once Matt was safely behind the slot machines, he covered my dash to the machines. I felt a white hot jolt of fear shoot through -no pun intended- my stomach as I felt a round hit my right shoulder plate. I was in mid-step when the round connected with my armor, and the force threw me off balance so that I collided into the slide of a slot machine. I hit the lever on the way to the floor, right before someone pulled me out of the line of fire, and pressed me up against another machine where I was safe from the oncoming gunfire.

“James, are you alright!?” Kai’s voice rang out from what seemed like a great distance. I must have hit my head when I hit the machine. Either that, or the gunshot to my shoulder had really jarred me. “James!?”

“I’m fine. I’m good.” I said, shaking my head to clear my vision.

“You’ve been shot!” Kai replied, worry etched in her voice.

“I don’t think the round penetrated.” I said rolling my right shoulder, and not feeling any horrendous pain that comes with being shot. I didn’t see any blood coming from my shoulder either. “Yeah, I’m good Kai. Don’t worry.”

I scoffed, and pointed to the slot machine that I had hit on my way to the casino’s floor. The display read 777. “Plus I hit the jackpot.”

“Collect your prize later _koibito_ , right now we need to clear out the ground floor.” Kai replied, and I nodded and raised my rifle at the same time Kai leveled her LMG. the two of us moved down the rows farther away from the combat. We were going to swing around and flank the horde, like we had done earlier in the street to get to the casino. We made it to the end of the row, and I felt my stomach drop again. There were even more ghoules down this way, and they had their rifles leveled.

“Oh goddamnit this is just not fair!” I growled, right before we hit the deck. Rounds sailed over our heads, and we returned the favor. Ghoules dropped, but there were more than we could handle. We were in trouble, and we knew it. Time seemed to move slow again, as one ghoul lowered its rifle. With all the adrenaline coursing through my system, I could make out the clear outline of a G36 like Alex’s. My eyes widened, as I saw the ghoul’s right index finger curl around the rifle’s trigger, right before the side of its head exploded outwards. Another ghoul followed, and another, and another after that.

“You two okay?” I heard John ask from the next row of slots. Several more shots rang out from his 417 firing on semi-auto. His rifle shots were joined by burst rifle fire, as someone else joined him.

“Yeah we’re good.” I called back, as Kai and I got up into a kneeling crouch, and raised our weapons in the same motion. I zeroed in on another ghoul and squeezed my Galil’s trigger. Three .30 caliber rounds flew from my rifle’s barrel, and embedded themselves into my target’s skull. That ghoul dropped to the ground, and I moved to another target and squeezed the trigger.

_Click!_

“Oh shit…” I hadn’t even realized that my magazine was empty, and that the three shots I had used to drop the ghoul several seconds ago were the last three rounds in the magazine. There was no time to reload my Galil without getting shot in the process, so I let my rifle drop allowing the sling to catch it, which seemed to be becoming something of a habit. I hadn’t realised that I had drawn one of my sidearms, until after I had let a shot off from a pistol that had seemed to fit my hand very well.

When that ghoul dropped to the floor, I had a split-second realization that I was staring down the elevated sights of a silver polished Smith & Wesson. One of the twin sidearms that had belonged to Brian’s uncle. I made a mental note to thank Brian for selling me these pistols at a really good price, as his late uncle’s customised sidearm had probably just saved my life. Another ghoul leveled its weapon at me, but I’d already trained my new sidearm on it. I didn’t even feel the recoil, as the slider kicked back to expel the empty 10mm cartridge at the same time a 10mm hole opened up on the bridge of the nose of the ghoul in question. I switched to another target, but that round went into the opposite wall, as my target was blasted to the side when a loud chorus of shotgun blasts began shredding the enemies in front of us. I counted ten shotgun blasts, before I heard the weapon click empty, and more burst gunfire reached my ears. The ghoules dropped, when bullets ripped into their heads from a position on our right.

I looked at Kai, who seemed just as confused as I was. John looked over from his position on the slots on my left, and so did Mariah who had joined Alex’s older brother in saving our asses from being shot. “Who the hell did that?”

My question was answered several seconds later when a bear of a man stepped into view. I’d only ever seen Owen Pitt during the four months I was training at MHI’s main compound down in Cazador. The man was huge, but seeing him in full armor? That was an imposing sight. Combined with the fact that he was holding a mean looking Saiga, and that Saiga being named Abomination. I felt an invoulantairy shudder go up my spine at the sight.

“You alright kid?” Owen asked, as he hauled me to my feet. I nodded, and looked back to where my team had inserted.

“Matt.” I said, worried for my best friend.

“Relax kid.” Earl Harbinger said, stepping up next to Owen. “We’re goin’ back that way. We got skulls to crack.”

“Lead the way boss.” I said, reloading my Galil before checking the magazine in my 10mm Smith & Wesson, letting it fall when I saw that I was looking at a spent magazine.

“Watch our backs kid.” Earl replied, the cigarette never falling from his lips. “And don’t call me ‘boss’ James.”

“Might catch some hell from this, but it’s Jimmi. Not James.” I corrected, smiling sheepishly.

“Eh, you’re alright kid.” Earl said, nodding in approval. “Alright let’s move.”

The slider of my 10mm sidearm came forward, as I loaded a fresh magazine into it. I was with Kai, Holly Newcastle, and MHI’s gunsmith Milo Anderson moving back through the long isle of slot machines. Matt soon came back into sight, loading a new magazine into his 33A2. His left cheek was bleeding, from where a round had sliced it open when it grazed his cheek. 

“Took you so long?” Matt panted, moving out of the way so Milo and Holly could get a clear shot.

“Ran into some uglies.” I replied, taking a look at the cut on his cheek. It wasn’t bad, and wouldn’t require stitches. “Got some backup.”

“Yeah I see that.” Matt replied. “So what’s the prognosis doc?”

“Eh you’re fine.” I said smirking a bit. “Slap a Hello Kitty band-aid on it, you’ll be fine.”

“Might get a second opinion on that Hello Kitty band-aid.” Matt said, as Milo and Holly pulled back to reload. Matt and I stepped up, I was focusing on targets on the first level, while Matt aimed high to pick off targets on the second landing. Matt’s rifle chirps were drowned out, by my Galil’s loud bursts of gunfire, as I quickly dropped targets one after one, until my magazine was empty.

“Two mags left.” I said ejecting the spent magazine, as Kai took my place firing around the slots.

“Bring more ammo next time.” Holly supplied. I noticed that her normal kind, and almost flirtatious perpetuous half smile was gone. It was replaced instead by a rather hard expression, that did not seem to suit her at all. “Either that, or don’t pack so much hardware. Less hardware you pack, more ammo you have for whatever you bring along.”

“Thanks for the tip. I’ll keep that in mind for the next job.” I replied, before she and Milo stepped up as Kai came back to reload her LMG.

“I do not feel sorry for the cleaning crew.” She said, tossing the empty ammo box aside. 

“If they weren’t ghoul-ified.” Matt remarked.

“Either way I wouldn’t want to be them.” I said, as Milo and Holly pulled back, and Matt and I moved up to take their place. The problem was, there was nothing left to shoot. Everything was down.

“Think it’s clear.” Matt said, as he stepped out of the cover of the slot machines, his rifle still leveled.

“Looks clear.” I said following Matt out of the cover of the slot machines. There were bodies, shell casings, and poker chips everywhere. And almost everything was covered in black blood. 

“Area’s clear.” I heard Alex’s voice, as the man in question rose from where he had kicked over a blackjack table. The left side of his face, as well as his left hand and arm was splattered with black blood, and there was a ghoul corpse laying at the foot of the table with its head crushed to a pulp. Hybrid’s were crazy scary strong.

“Right then.” Pat said, coming out of cover from behind the same blackjack table. “We move up floor by floor, until we find Susan.”

“Good plan Martin.” Earl said stepping out of cover, taking a drag of the cigarette that was now lit.

“Earl!” Pat sputtered in surprise. Alex tried and failed to hold back a snort of laughter at his best friend’s reaction.

“Calm your tits kid.” Earl replied, and Alex gave another snort of laughter at Earl’s reply. No doubt due to the fact that we were on the Vegas Strip, where strip clubs were located about every ten feet. “It’s a good idea, and I say we go with it.”

“Thanks Earl, and would you let it out already Alex?” He said turning to his friend, who let out a mad cackle of laughter. 

“Oh man! You should have seen your face! It was like: ‘Ah’!”

“Yeah yeah.” Pat said, and I swore from his tone he was rolling his eyes from behind his sunglasses. “Just remember, we’re in Vegas. So what happens here.”

“Stays here.” Alex finished, still chuckling.

“Well pick yourself up, and get your game face back on.” Pat said. “The bottom of the ninth inning is about to start.”


	16. Chapter 16

Everyone raised their rifles, when the sound of more gunfire reached our ears. Though it sounded far off, like it was coming from somewhere else in the casino. I sighed, and lowered my rifle but didn’t relax my grip on it. 

“Looks like our hosts are dealing with Sam and Recker.” Pat said lowering his M4. 

“Should we help?” Alex asked.

“Yeah.” Pat replied. “Any volunteers?”

Low on primary ammo, so what? I still had my Saiga, plus six other sidearms, a backup Smith and Wesson .45 Chief Special I had holstered on my right ankle. Plus I had my katana, and the large Winchester knife that Dimitri had given me. I was in no way out of the fight in any way, shape, or form. “I’ll go.”

“I’m in too.” Matt said. “I might be running low, but I’m not letting you go without me.”

“I’ll go with you.” Rocky said.

“I’ll lead you guys.” Creed said. “We’ll sweep around the slots, hit these ugly bastards from behind.

“Alright then.” Pat said. “Kai, you go with Terry. John, Alex, Clare, Belle, James. You guys sweep around from the other side.”

“Nice plan Martin.” Earl said, nodding in approval. “Your boys get Sam and Reck out of the fire, rest of us’ll head up and box Susan in.”

“Mike, Sam.” Alex said into his com. “We’re coming around to assist, so watch your fire.”

 _“Copy that.”_ Sam replied. _“Get here quick boys. These ugly bastards got us pinned somethin’ nasty.”_

“Right, let’s move!” Alex barked. Five of us moved swiftly over the fallen bodies of the goules we’d managed to kill, but something was bugging me about this situation. Something I had to confirm for myself.

“Something’s bugging me.” I said as we moved through the slot machines. “Locke said there was no evidence of any ghoul sighting in history, but back in training in Cazador Earl showed us evidence that they did exist. Plus they’re incredibly difficult to kill, supposedly soaking up bullets like a sponge.”

“Yeah, I remember that.” Rocky said. “Earl said that head shots aren’t really that effective, unless you’re using a real heavy weapon. Either that, or using a flamethrower, or incendiary grenades or shells.”

“But the sons of bitches we’ve been dropping, go down like flies when they’ve been shot in the head.” I added. “And I didn’t think to pack any incendiary shells. Did anyone else?”

“James might have.” Terry Creed added, then to explain and ease my confusion. “Our demo guy. Connor calls him ‘Fireball’ because he loves blowing things up. That AA12 of his is always loaded with incendiary shells.”

“That’s a comforting thing to know that one of us is prepared for this. But what about the ugly bastards we’ve been shooting at all night? How is it that Locke and the MCB have no idea about these things?” We’d passed the casino’s bar, but oh god it was a horrible sight to behold. Blood, gore, and partially eaten body parts littered the floor. Once again I found myself suppressing the urge to vomit violently.

“Right.” Terry continued. “The whole thing with the MCB not knowing about the whole ghoul deal, is that before Locke took over as acting director for the MCB, another guy was in charge of the place. He was a former hunter like the rest of us, but had a real bad falling out with Harbinger. That led Harbinger to withhold a few things from the former director. Including the existence of ghouls. And as for those ugly little bastards, what they didn’t tell you in training, is that with a ghoul there’s a bit of a delay period. It takes some time for the ugly bastards to turn into the super zombies on crack as Harbinger likes to call them.”

“How much time?” I asked, looking at all the dismembered body parts scattered across the floor.

“A couple hours.” Creed replied, and I felt a cold wave of dread wash over me. It had taken us hours just to get here. Then there was the unknown amount of time we spent circling the airstrip. Then there was the fact that Sam and the other team leader Mike Recker, were pinned down by these things.

“We can’t waste anymore time.” I said.

“Got that right kid. These things are a ticking time bomb of deadly.” The five of us double timed it towards the growing sound of gunfire. My only hope was that neither of the two pinned teams had caught a lethal round. But that was the least of our worries, especially if these things were turning into super zombies on crack.

When we reached where the craps and bakara tables were, there was little to no time to take the scene when I felt a bullet zip past my ear. White hot fear jolted through me, and I ducked and scrambled to find cover. I felt a large hand grab my right arm, and pull me behind one of the craps table. “You okay kid?”

I looked up at a man with a large walrus moustache, and a white cowboy hat on the top of his head. “I’m fine Sam. Thanks for saving my scrawny white ass.”

“Don’t mention it kid.” The large hunter said, pulling the lever action on his big 10-70 rifle forward. “You got anything for that pea shooter of yours?”

“Two mags left.” I replied. “I would’ve had more but I ran into some uglies, and I’m packing a little more hardware than I think I need.”

“Well shoot until you’re out kid. We don’t have a lot ‘o time, ‘fore these shitheads turn inta-”

“Super zombies on crack.” We finished the last part of the sentence at the same time.

“You’re alright kid.” Sam scoffed.

“I have my moments. But can we shoot the monsters and get paid?”

“Thought you’d never ask kid.” Sam and I cleared our cover of the craps table at the same time, rifles up and at the ready. I had a bead on one ghoul on the landing above us, but it looked real different from the ones I had just sent to hell several minutes ago. Its skin was stretched so tight it looked more like a skeleton than anything else. The lips were pulled back, revealing razor sharp teeth, but the eyes were still that horifying glowing purple.

“Oh you are one ugly mother fucker.” I growled, and squeezed the trigger on my Galil. The rifle discharged, and the ghoules head snapped back in the same moment. It staggered back, but it didn’t drop. I squeezed the trigger again, and another hole appeared next to the first. Again the ghoul staggered but didn’t drop. “Oh shit this is-”

BOOM!

I yelped in surprise. Even through my electronic earplugs the sound of Sam’s large rifle made my ears ring. The round vaporised one half of the ghoules jaw, and ripped off the other half, but to my horror and Sam’s fluent cursing, the ghoul in question still didn’t drop. The thing raised a weapon that looked like a REPR .308 which is a real powerful marksman rifle -sort of like a cross between an AR-10 and an FAL-. The two of us ducked, not a split second before the ghoul fired. The high-powered 30 caliber round passed over our heads, and buried itself deeply into the floor a foot behind us. Sam and I looked at one another for about a split-second, before we rammed our shoulders into the large craps table. It groaned as it fell to the floor, and the two of us quickly ducked behind it.

“We’ll have to find better cover soon.” I said, as another high-powered round passed over our heads.

“Don’t worry about it kid.” Sam said rapping on the bottom of the craps table. “There’s a couple sheets of metal plating in these things.”

Sam’s words proved true a moment later, when a third 30 caliber round hit the table. The round bounced off the table, making that same sound effect you hear in movies when a bullet ricochets. If my heartbeat wasn’t going insane, and I wasn’t drowning in adrenaline, I might’ve found that amusing. “This is bad! We put three rounds in that things head, and it didn’t drop!”

“Well Earl has a saying for situations like this: When all else fails, kill it with fire!” Sam replied, as another round bounced off the craps table. 

“Good plan, but I don’t have any incendiary shells or gre-” Sam tossed a grenade into my hands, from where he had a few strapped to the tac-vest on his armor. “Nevermind.”

“On my signal kid.” I nodded in response to Sam’s order. The two of us simultaneously pulled the pins on the grenades, mentally counted to 3, and stood up. We tossed the grenades through the air, and they landed behind the ghoul and behind the guardrail of the second landing. We ducked, as the explosion tore up the second landing. Glass shards rained down on us, followed seconds later by a wet meaty thunk, when something landed between us.

“They’re even uglier dead.” I said, looking at the ghoules remains. I mean there was nothing left of it but the head and torso, and even that was ripped to pieces. It was an awesome, yet disgusting sight to behold. Right up until the damn thing started flopping around like a fish. “What the hell!? It’s not dead!?”

Sam growled and jammed a large Bowie knife into the base of the ghoules neck. There was a sickening crunch, when the knife snapped the vertebrae, and the ghoul didn’t move after that. “Dead now.”

“One down, about a million more to- SHIT!” Something had lifted our cover, and tossed it aside like it was nothing. Sam and I back-peddled, and my stomach dropped when I saw what tore our cover away. Another ghoul stood where our cover was, and it was not like the ones we had fought earlier, or the ghoul sam and I had just blown up. It’s skin looked more like it had electrical tape wrapped around its skelleton. The things hads looked more like claws than fingers. There were no lips, just a mouth of razor sharp teeth. Sam and I were looking at a very dangerous super zombie on crack.

The ghoul let out a horrible screech, at the same moment I fired my Galil. My first three rounds caught the ghoul in its right knee. The thing buckled slightly, but it didn’t drop like I had hopped it would. I fired three more rounds into its knee, and the same thing happened. It buckled slightly, but it didn’t drop or give out. Sam let loose a round from his large rifle, aiming for the same place I was. The frontal part of the ghoules right knee was blown off, but it _still_ didn’t drop. 

We are in huge trouble. The thought raced through my mind right before the ghoul leapt at us. I saw in slow motion, as it sailed through the air, claws extended, and fangs barred. I must have looked like a deed in the headlights to this thing, right up until something barreled into it that knocked it away from Sam and me.

Whoever it was who had saved our asses, tossed the ghoul into and through a sheet of plate glass that lead to some sort of private VIP section of the casino. I found myself unable to speak, when I saw that Rocky had once again pulled my ass out of the fire. He raised his 33A2, and dumped the entire magazine into the ghoul. Although I couldn’t see where the ghoul had landed. Hell I couldn’t even get to my feet, as they felt numb. 

And then I realized the reason why I couldn’t stand up, and that scared the shit out of me. Another ghoul that had no legs -my guess was from the grenades Sam and I had tossed onto the second landing- had a vice like grip on both of my ankles. I was so freaked out, I couldn’t even scream. I just knew that the ghoul was going to bite me, and knew I was screwed eight ways from sunday when I saw that things razor sharp fangs separate as it prepared to bite me, right up until a large machete plunged into the things right temple. The grip on my ankles loosened, and someone pulled me away from the bisected ghoul. 

“You okay Jimmi?” Creed asked, as he beheaded the ghoul who had attempted to bite me. 

“Yeah … I think so.” I said nodding shakily, as Sam hauled me to my feet. “That was terrifying.”

“But you’re good?” Rocky asked ejecting his empty magazine. Of course with his attention on me, he didn’t see the ghoul that he had put through a sheet of plate glass charge at him, until it had tackled him to the floor. We all snapped our rifles up, but nobody cold take a shot because we’d hit Rocky if anyone tried to hit the ghoul. Of course that just meant that nobody could shoot at the ghoul.

Matt’s boot collided with the ghoules temple, when he punted the punted the super zombie. It released Rocky, and skidded across the floor, only to slowly get back up. We all knew that Matt had pissed this thing off, and that ghoul was going to set its sights on my best friend. It let out an inhumanly loud screech, as it prepared to charge at him.

“TAKE IT DOWN!” Sam roared, and everyone opened up on the ghoul. It twitched and jerked wildly as a literal wall of silver slammed into it. Someone must have fired a 40mm shell, because the next thing anyone saw, was the ghoul exploding in a hail of blood, gore, fire, and silver shrapnel.

“Everyone alright!?” I heard Alex call from somewhere far away. I couldn’t tell from where though, as my ears were ringing from the large explosion. I swear I was going to develop tinnitus even with the electronic earplugs.

“We’re good.” Sam’s voice came in much clearer once I removed the earplugs. I think I would have to get Isabelle to see the extent of the damage -if there was any, although I was praying there wasn’t-

Everyone’s attention was then drawn to the ceiling, when it felt like the entire building shook. Pat’s voice came over the com line a second later, and he sounded incredibly pissed off. _“Locke! The target is not Susan Shackleford! It’s Sabin! Say again target is high priority target Jeremy Michael Sabin!”_

 _“Has Sabin been neutralized Patrick!?”_ Locke sounded just as pissed as Pat was.

_“Negative! The son of a bitch got away! He’s heading for the north section of the blockade! Say again north blockade end!”_

_“This is Harbinger. I want all hunters out of the hotel, and heading back to the north end of Locke’s blockade now.”_ It scared me to hear how much venom there was in Earl’s voice.

 _“I want all MCB agents to corner off the north end. We are not letting Sabin slip away.”_ A shudder went up my spine as Locke’s voice contained an equal amount of ice cold venom.

I looked to Matt, and Rocky, both of them seemed to be equally confused. I was just about to ask who this Sabin was, but instead of a question I ended up groaning in exasperation. A long drawn out howl reached my ears, meaning that this whole situation got more complicated, and it was going to be a very long night.


End file.
